Calvary Road Baptist Church

“THE PERSONAL MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”

John 14.26 

John 14.25-26: 

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 

At this point in the greatest conversation ever recorded in the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ appears to be introducing the Holy Spirit of God to His 11 remaining apostles this night before His crucifixion. Verse 26 is the fullest description of the Holy Spirit to be found in this Gospel.[1] Yet we know our Lord’s disciples have some familiarity with the Spirit of God.

Before I proceed with this message from God’s Word, I want to point out the four most prominent attitudes held by people toward Scripture, which is to say the Bible. On pages 12-15 in volume 1 of his classic Systematic Theology, Lewis Sperry Chafer lists Rationalism, Mysticism, Romanism, and the Orthodox Protestant Faith as the four categories of people’s attitudes toward the Word of God.[2]

Each of us has an approach to the Bible that falls under one of these headings, whether you realize it or not. The Rationalist is the person who does not trust the Bible, not believing that it is authored by God and without error. Typical of most unsaved people. However, many people who profess to be Christians are, in some sense, Rationalists without realizing it, convincing themselves that their reluctance to take the Bible at face value as true is justified by them as being reasonable.

The Mystic is the individual who believes that divine revelation is not limited to the written Word of God, but that if one is hungry enough for it, submissive enough to God for it, and dedicated enough for it, God somehow communicates to such an individual’s spirit immediately and quite apart from His Word. This would be communication without means. Chafer quite correctly identifies Pantheism, Theosophy, and Greek philosophy as mysticism. He also recognizes that Spiritism, Seventh Day Adventism, Christian Science, Mormonism, and what he termed Millennial Dawnism (Jehovah’s Witnesses) subscribe to a false mysticism.

I would add to Chafer’s list the modern Pentecostal and Charismatic movements as being groups that, to some extent, subscribe to a mystical approach to the Christian life and with the Word of God. One can be a Christian and be a Mystic concerning the Bible. How can you tell who is a Mystic? “God told me to tell you something.” “I felt strongly impressed by the Spirit to do that.” That is how a Mystic identifies himself or herself.

Most Pentecostals and Charismatics know in their heart of hearts that the so-called gift of tongues they either endorse or refuse to criticize cannot be supported in Scripture. As well, they usually recognize that they are playing fast and loose with what they call the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and other such things.

Those are compromises they are willing to live with as necessary to the kind of Christianity they approve of and want to be involved with. It is very positive and market-driven, don’t you see? They are typically quite willing to step outside the boundaries of the faith once delivered to the saints as described in the Bible to engage in what they pretend to be a direct, extra-biblical, connection with God.[3] But not Pentecostals or Charismatics alone. Have you ever heard a Baptist preacher say, “Can’t you just feel the Spirit here with us this evening?” That, my friend, is a statement that will only be made by a Mystic who thinks God conveys truth not contained in the Bible to him on a regular basis. The Mystic’s ego is lifted by his insistence that he or she is in direct, other-than-the-Bible contact with the Spirit of God Who provides direct communication to his consciousness. Of course, such leadings, urgings, or promptings are outside the boundaries of God’s revelation in Scripture.

The third of the prominent attitudes toward Scripture recognized by Chafer is Romanism, a spiritually deadly concept that insists the Church of Rome and not the Bible is the immediate and final authority in all matters of divine revelation. This approach has resulted in the Roman Catholic notion of salvation by works, the veneration of Mary, the adoration of statues, the fiction of purgatory, the sale of indulgences for money, the claim of transubstantiation (turning the elements of the Lord’s Supper into the real body and blood of Christ when the priest blesses it), and a whole host of other damnable heresies.

Finally, Lewis Sperry Chafer lists the Orthodox Protestant Faith attitude toward the Word of God. I am not fond of his label, though I appreciate the substance of his description of this attitude. It is an attitude toward God’s Word that has historically also been held by those of us who are Classical Baptists, who are most definitely not Protestants.

This right attitude toward Scripture is one that maintains the Bible is the infallible Word of God, the Bible is the only rule of faith and practice, human reason and knowledge should be wholly subject to the Scriptures, there is no inner light or added revelation ever given beyond what is contained in the Bible, and no authority relative to the forming of truth has ever been committed to the church or to men beyond that given to the New Testament writers.

If you are familiar with the history of the Protestant Reformation, you remember that it was a revolt within Western Christendom in 16th-century Europe that challenged the Catholic Church and the authority of the pope, arising from obvious errors, abuses, and discrepancies by the Catholic Church. The Reformation is usually considered to have started with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther in 1517.[4]

Since the Roman Catholic Church taught salvation results from a cooperative effort by God and sinners, and the Reformation rediscovered the truth that “salvation is of the LORD,”[5] a shorthand declaration of truths related to Biblical salvation arose that have come to be known as The Five Solas of the Reformation:[6]

  1. Scripture alone.
  2. Christ alone.
  3. Grace alone.
  4. Faith alone.
  5. Glory to God alone. 

The five Solas reflect a recognition that a sinner’s salvation is a miracle of God, with the five characteristics summed up by five Latin phrases that are translated “Scripture alone,” “Christ alone,” “Grace alone,” “Faith alone,” and “Glory to God alone.”

Needless to say, the Rationalist, being an unbeliever, would never subscribe to any of the five Solas. Rationalists don’t believe the Bible is true, that it is inspired. Neither do they believe in salvation by Christ alone, salvation by grace alone, salvation by faith alone, or the notion of glory to God alone. How could they? They don’t believe in salvation at all. The Mystic, be he or she a Pentecostal or a Charismatic, does not, with an insistence on having an immediate connection to God, believe in Scripture alone. As for the Roman Catholic, Scripture alone, Christ alone, grace alone, and faith alone, are all utterly denied.

To restate, Chafer describes four basic types of attitudes toward the Word of God; the Rationalist, the Mystic, the Roman, and the Orthodox Protestant Faith (under which heading I would include the Classical Baptist position). Setting aside the Rationalist and the Roman view as obviously erroneous, let me now speak to the Mystic attitude toward the Word of God, and especially where the Holy Spirit of God is concerned.

It is essential for me to be clear about this because the body of this message from God’s Word has to do with the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God. Yet it is regarding the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God, that we encounter some of our most problematic issues in the Christian community because so many believers in Christ are, usually without realizing, Mystics in their approach to the Bible.

Sometimes a sinner comes under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God, considers the claims of Christ found in the Bible, trusts Christ as personal savior, and then gradually settles over time into a lifestyle that is characterized by ritual and routine. This Christian goes to Church on Sunday, reads the Bible and prays more or less, but is relatively passionless about the Christian life, with little appetite for a spiritual experience, virtually no yearning to know Christ more intimately, and without any desire to be useful in glorifying God.

This person’s life is lived without the ongoing reality of a vital faith, the experience of expressions of love, or the expectations of genuine hope. This person is entirely satisfied with a relatively lifeless grasp of doctrine and the satisfaction that all is well with my soul. Many professing Christians live this kind of life. However, some professing Christians abhor that kind of life and long for emotional involvement, a feeling of connectedness to God, and the rise and fall of a passionate love affair with the Triune God. I say, “Bravo!”

Sadly, many professing believers seek out such a Christian life by adopting an attitude toward the Bible that is mystical, granting to themselves a special kind of connection with God that they fail to recognize actually circumvents the Bible and is never carefully evaluated in terms of Scriptural truth. They have the best of feelings, the most satisfying of emotional involvement, sincere expressions of love, but without the support of Bible doctrine for so much of what they do and believe.

How is the Christian to be rescued from a dead and cold and mostly accurate orthodoxy on one hand and an erroneous mysticism on the other hand that unconsciously relegates the infallible Word of God to a position that is secondary to felt experiences and feelings in the life of a believer who is, unknowingly, a Mystic?

I became aware of this early on in my Christian life when I came to know Christ as my Savior while working as an engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, California. The following Monday, I went to a Bible study, and it was a Charismatic/Pentecostal Bible study. I went to that Bible study for about six weeks without ever being invited by any of those guys to Church. Then I was introduced to someone who did invite me to Church. That is when I discovered that the Pentecostals/Charismatics held to one approach to studying the Bible. At the same time, the Church I went to very obviously embraced an entirely different approach to studying the Bible.

I remember engaging different Charismatic and Pentecostal Bible study leaders on many different occasions, asking them to explain their beliefs in light of various Bible passages I brought to their attention. Their response was, invariably, to discount what the Bible taught by saying, “Yes, but let me tell you what happened to me,” using their experience to interpret the Bible rather than using the Bible to understand their experience.

They were elevating personal experience over the declaration of God’s Word, granting authority to experience rather than recognizing the authority of Scripture. That identifies you as a Mystic. If you are a Bible-believing Christian, you do not use your personal experiences to evaluate the Bible, so you might understand it. You use the Bible to assess your own experiences.

There is a narrow path for the Christian between a dead, cold, uninvolved, orthodoxy based upon the Bible but without the experienced communion of the Holy Spirit on the one hand, and what seems to be a perceived and felt communion with God and His Spirit that nevertheless disregards portions of God’s Word, which, after all, was written, by God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit wrote this book!

And some people feel that “Excuse me, hold it a second, I don’t have this emotional connectedness, I don’t feel these emotions. There must be something wrong with me.” Not necessarily. Because it is not emotions that lead to an understanding of God’s Word. It is God’s Word, and the apprehension of God’s truth, that results in an emotional response to the truth that you have apprehended. So, you don’t run around shouting for joy because you got a tingle running up and down your spine. It’s because you have come to appreciate what you have never appreciated before. Saved by the glory of God. Saved by the power of God. Saved by the grace of God. And that should make you jump and shout Hallelujah. Amen?

How can you be in communion with the Holy Spirit, being careful not to grieve or quench Him, and yet pay little or no attention to the inscripturated truth of the Bible that He authored?[7] This is a complex issue that was successfully addressed by the famous New England pastor, Jonathan Edwards, in his classic book The Religious Affections.[8]

Jonathan Edwards was a profoundly spiritual man who was also an insightful theologian and student of the Bible. He recognized that individuals had been so affected by sin that the conclusions we draw from our feelings and from the conclusions we derive from our experiences are, even for the Christian, unreliable. The situation of the Mystic is hopeless because the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice and the supposed feelings and impressions the Mystic attributes to the Holy Spirit of God is not only entirely subjective and incapable of verification, it is utterly without support in the Bible.

For guidance, the Spirit of God gave us the completed revelation of God’s Word.[9] And to be led of the Spirit is most definitely not the Spirit of God imparting to the spiritual Christian directions, truths, impressions, and impulses subsequent to the Bible. Rather, the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and to be led by the Spirit, means that the Spirit of God emphasizes in the mind and heart of a Christian who consciously and conscientiously submits himself to the Spirit of God, what is already written in the Bible, what the believer is already aware of in Scripture.

This is why the list of activities that follow the Apostle Paul’s directive in Ephesians 5.18, “but be filled with the spirit,” is almost the same list of activities that follow the Apostle Paul’s directive in Colossians 3.16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” To be continually filled with the Spirit of God is properly recognized to be, not acting upon subjective impressions and feelings, but acting upon the Word of Christ, the Bible, as you understand it in response to the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit as He illuminates your understanding.

Do you want me to illustrate, very quickly, how you can tell that they are so completely wrong about the filling of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God’s people? Why should a Christian think he needs to plead and beg God to fill him with the Spirit of God when the Word of God commands him to be filled with the Spirit of God? Why pray to God to do something that God had commanded you to do?

If God has commanded you to do something, you do not need to ask Him to do for you what He has already commanded you to do. Understand? If you believe you need to pray and cry out to God, and have an all-night prayer meeting, and get people together and pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit, clearly you do not understand. You are a Mystic because it was a simple and straightforward command from the Word of God to be filled with the Spirit. What is it to be filled with the Spirit? Do what the Bible says. If you do what you understand the Bible tells you to do, you are filled with the Spirit of God.

Thus, while feelings are very definitely associated with the Christian life, rightly so, and in connection with the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Who produces peace, love, joy), the feelings and impressions that are rightly treasured by the child of God are not feelings and impressions communicated by direct mystical communion with the Holy Spirit. Jonathan Edwards correctly understood that the feelings and impressions that godly and maturing believers cherish arise from the Holy Spirit’s ministry of bringing understanding to what the Bible says and has said without error or alteration for 2000 years.

This background understanding of a proper approach to the Bible, which I will call objective, can be independently verified in the Bible. An improper approach to the Bible, the Mystic’s approach to the Bible, which I will call subjective, is unverifiable. Back to our text, John 14.26: 

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” 

I mentioned at the outset that our text appears to show the Lord Jesus Christ introducing the Holy Spirit of God to His 11 remaining apostles. That is not what He is doing. In reality, He is reintroducing the Holy Spirit to His apostles.

Allow me to elaborate under three headings: 

First, THE APOSTLE’S AWARENESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT 

Be it ever on your mind that our Lord’s 11 remaining apostles were Jewish men, that had been raised from infancy in families that worshiped in their local synagogue every Sabbath day, were well taught by their rabbis, and upon reaching adulthood doubtless made their appointed pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

As well, the Jewish people of the first century had a literacy rate that likely greatly exceeded the literacy rate of our country. Additionally, every synagogue by this time had a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, a portion of which was read during worship every Sabbath, as our Lord did the first time He went back to His home synagogue in Nazareth after performing His first miracle in Cana, Luke 4.16-20: 

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.[10]

20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 

Have you ever wondered why the eyes of all them in the synagogue who heard the Lord read from the prophet Isaiah stared at Him in wonder when He closed the book and sat down? Those in attendance in the synagogue that Sabbath day stared at the Lord Jesus Christ because, being very familiar with the passage He read from, and likely having committed the passage to memory, were astonished that He stopped reading mid-sentence. No one had ever done that before, and their astonishment illustrates their familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures.

That familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures meant they were well aware of what the Hebrew Bible taught about the Spirit of the LORD. There are no less than 40 passages in the Hebrew Old Testament that make reference to “the spirit of God” or “the spirit of the LORD.”[11]

Revelation is gradual and progressive, which is to say that God doled out the truth about the Holy Spirit very gradually from the beginning of the Bible. Thus, the Jewish people of the Lord Jesus’ day would (every one of them), know about the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the LORD. However, they would not know much about Him or His dealings with God’s people. 

Next, THE APOSTLE’S RECOLLECTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM JOHN THE BAPTIST’S MINISTRY 

Let us be mindful of two things in connection with these men’s recollection of the Holy Spirit from John the Baptist’s ministry: First, we recognize that the Gospel according to Luke was written by Luke, the physician, and companion of the Apostle Paul, who admits he was not a witness to anything he writes about in his Gospel. Evidence also seems to suggest that the material contained in Luke’s Gospel was gathered years after the events it records when Luke gathered the material during the Apostle Paul’s incarceration in Caesarea. Thus, whatever is found in Luke’s Gospel might not have been known by the Lord’s 11 remaining apostles until it appeared in Luke’s Gospel.

Second, remember that four of these men had been disciples of John the Baptist at the time the Savior’s public ministry began.[12] It is unclear if they were on hand to witness the Savior’s baptism by John, but there is no doubt they were present when the Savior returned from His wilderness temptations by the devil.

Here are the two things we can be quite sure those men either heard or were told that would provide information to them about the Holy Spirit that other Jewish men of their day did not know:

First, they likely did not witness but were later told about the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ by His cousin John the Baptist.[13] On that occasion, we are told, “Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him,” Matthew 3.16. The accounts found in Mark and John’s Gospel are virtually identical to Matthew’s. Additionally, the Gospel accounts suggest that John the Baptist repeatedly predicted, when he preached the Gospel, the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the hand of the coming Jewish Messiah.[14] Thus, being Jewish men, they would know from the Hebrew Scriptures there was a Spirit of God, a Spirit of the LORD. And from their association with John the Baptist, they would know the Holy Spirit had come upon the Lord Jesus Christ when John the Baptist immersed Him.

As well, they were aware the Spirit of God was associated with the Lord Jesus Christ’s temptation in the forty days He spent in the wilderness following His baptism. Notice Mark’s account of it in Mark 1.12: 

“And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.” 

Matthew 4.1 records it this way: 

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” 

Luke 4.1 reads as follows: 

“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,” 

From the Old Testament, the apostles know there is a Holy Spirit and that He had dealings with men. From their time with John the Baptist, they learned the Spirit of God came upon their Master with the gentleness of a dove when He was baptized, but that the Spirit then displayed His will by leading, by driving the Lord into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. To be sure, throughout His earthly ministry the Lord Jesus Christ would speak of the Holy Spirit, but not in a way that resulted in His disciples knowing a great deal more than they had learned when they were with John the Baptist until the night He spoke the words of our text. 

Finally, THE LORD’S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT THE LAST NIGHT HE WAS WITH THEM BEFORE HIS CRUCIFIXION 

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” 

Notice, briefly, five things about the Holy Spirit. The Lord will have more to say at the end of the next chapter and in John chapter 16, but these comments are worthy of our attention because of the place the Holy Spirit would come to occupy in their lives, and our own lives:

First, “But the Comforter.” Is it not interesting how the Lord Jesus Christ turns the attention of His apostles from Himself to the Holy Spirit of God by referring to Him as the Comforter, the Paraclete, the One who draws alongside.

Next, “which is the Holy Ghost.” The Greek word pneῦma is sometimes translated spirit and, at other times, translated ghost. There is no difference in meaning because both English words translate the same Greek word, pneῦma. That He is described as holy is profoundly significant, with special attention paid by the Christian to the danger of quenching, and/or grieving the Holy Spirit of God.

Third, “whom the Father will send in my name.” Notice the Savior’s mention that the Father will send the Spirit. In John 15.26, He states that He sends the Spirit from the Father. Observe that God the Father is never sent; He is the sender of both the Son and the Spirit. The Spirit is never sender; He is sent by both the Father and the Son. Only Jesus is both sent one and sender; sent by the Father; He sends both the Spirit and the disciples.[15]

Fourth, “he shall teach you all things.” Is this the first time these men would ever have been told that the Spirit of God teaches? There may be allusions to the Spirit of God teaching in the Old Testament book of Exodus or mention is made of the spirit of wisdom enabling two men to function as extraordinary craftsmen.[16] I am inclined to think this refers to the Holy Spirit’s ministry of illuminating the understanding of someone who has studied the Word of God, giving that individual a grasp of the meaning of the Scripture he has studied. Without this ministry of the Holy Spirit, we could not learn the Word of God.

Finally, “and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Anyone who has read the Gospel accounts has noticed the seeming inability of the 12 apostles to learn anything. Time and time again, they display their inability to grasp the simplest concepts, truths, and lessons. Here we are given some insight into why that was so with those men. They did not previously have the ministry of the Holy Spirit to give them recollection and comprehension of what the Savior had taught them. This should be a lesson to us all of our profound inability to grasp spiritual truths, even when taught by the Master Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I have titled this sermon The Personal Ministry of the Holy Spirit because I am impressed with this verse as being pivotal in the relationship between the Holy Spirit of God and these 11 apostles. It would not be until after His resurrection that the Spirit of God would be given to these men to indwell them.[17] And though the Savior speaks more about the Holy Spirit in the next two chapters of John’s Gospel, it is in this verse that He begins to introduce to them the Holy Spirit of God. It is in this verse that it is seen that the Holy Spirit of God is personal in a way that is only suggested and implied in the Old Testament Scriptures. And this is very, very important for the following reason.

If you have ever engaged in conversation with an Orthodox Jewish person, or someone who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish tradition, you might have noticed the tendency of that person to refer to God as a distant, abstract, or somewhat impersonal being. It has never been my experience interacting with a Jewish person that God has been referred to in a personal and intimate way.

My grade school principal in Fort Totten, North Dakota, was a very nice Jewish man from New York. Many classmates at Nova school in Davie, Florida, were Jewish, some of them of the Orthodox persuasion. Additionally, I have had friends throughout my adulthood who were Jewish, some of whom were very religious. However, my personal experiences have never brought me into contact with a Jewish person who referred to God in such a way as to suggest an intimate, personal relationship, unless he or she is a Jewish person who has come to know Jesus Christ.

I also know professing Christians who put on quite a convincing display, convincing to themselves and others, but not being very convincing to me. Why not? There is no evidence from their conversations; there are no suggestions from their behavior, that intimacy of any kind exists between them and God, them and Christ, or them and the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, I have known individuals, and have known them well, who have had everyone they know convinced they are Christians, without convincing me. Understand, no one has to convince me he is a Christian to go to heaven. I am certainly no judge of whether or not an acquaintance or a friend is a believer in Christ beyond my pastoral duties and obligations requiring it. However, I am much concerned when someone who claims to be a Christian seems to relate to God in the same way an Orthodox Jewish person relates to God, without the Savior, and without the Spirit of God. That individual might as well be a Deist.

Thus, the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of every Christian should be realized. Without a personal Savior, there is no Christian life, and you have no heavenly Father. And without a personal Savior, there is no gift of the Holy Spirit.

What role does the Holy Spirit of God play in the life of every believer? We see the beginnings of it here in John 14.26. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Savior told His men that the Spirit of God is the Comforter, is holy, is a teacher, is sent to you, and is an illuminator.

Is He any of those things to you? Would someone who never before met you come to notice after being introduced to you that you displayed the fruit of the Spirit or the fear of the LORD? The Spirit of God is important, profoundly important. He represents your Savior in His absence. Does your life reflect that in any way?

Some people try to display the Holy Spirit’s impact in their lives in a mystical way, by ginning up a relationship that is entirely divorced from Scripture. But that is not God’s plan for your life. His plan is for the Spirit of God to profoundly impact your life through Scripture. Does it?

Have issues come to your attention that you need to address? Reach out to me so we can talk.

__________

[1] Leon Morris, The Gospel According To John - Revised Edition, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), page 582.

[2] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol. I, (Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 1947), pages 12-15.

[3] Jude 3

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation

[5] Jonah 2.9

[6] https://www.monergism.com/five-solas-reformation#:~:text=The%20Five%20Solas%20of%20the%20Reformation%201%20Scripture,4%20Faith%20alone.%205%20Glory%20to%20God%20alone.

[7] Ephesians 4.30; 1 Thessalonians 5.19

[8] Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted 1961)

[9] Psalm 119.105

[10] Isaiah 61.2

[11] Ge 1:2; 41:38; Ex 31:3; 35:31; Nu 24:2; Jg 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1Sa 10:6, 10; 11:6; 16:13, 14; 19:20, 23; 2Sa 23:2; 1Ki 18:12; 22:24; 2Ki 2:16; 2Ch 15:1; 18:23; 20:14; 24:20; Job 27:3; 33:4; Isa 11:2; 40:7, 13; 59:19; 61:1; 63:14; Eze 11:5, 24; 37:1; Mic 2:7; 3:8

[12] James, John, Peter, Andrew

[13] It is unlikely John the Baptist’s disciples abandoned their livelihoods, but spent as much time with him as they could while still providing for their families.

[14] Matthew 3.11; Mark 1.8; Luke 3.16; John 1.33

[15] Andreas J. Kostenberger, John - ECNT, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), page 442.

[16] Ex 28:3; 31:3; 35:31

[17] John 20.22

Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.

Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church