George Whitefield: Preacher Of The New Birth

Let's join together in prayer, shall we? God, our Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit. We ask you to open our minds to your word. Father, to an understanding of how you have worked in our past. we're thankful for your great servants who have proclaimed the word of God fearlessly help us to learn from them help us to learn the lessons of scripture through them we're thankful again for what you have done for us in Christ how you have worked in your church so we ask that you would help us today in Jesus name, Amen If I were to tell you that George Whitefield was a preacher from the 1700s, you probably wouldn't give it another thought.

In fact, you'd probably say, boy, I'm glad he's not going to say much more about that because I can't think of anything more boring than to study somebody from the 1700s. But George Whitefield was not just another preacher. When he preached, he would often preach outdoors to thousands of people. on a cool evening in October of 1740, 25-year-old Whitfield mounted a platform in Boston Commons and preached to an audience of 23,000 people.

And the population of Boston at that time was 17,000. People came from everywhere to hear him preach. He was actually the first celebrity in American history. It's estimated that by the time he died, he had preached 18,000 times to 10 million people in England, Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda, and the American colonies. At the time of his death, 80% of the entire population in the American colonies had heard him at least once.

And this was before radio and television. but more important in his celebrity was his message and that was the message of the gospel George Whitefield wasn just another preacher he was a preacher with a message and that message was the new birth Everywhere he went he would challenge his listeners Had they embraced Christ as Savior Had they been reconciled to God But most importantly, had they experienced the work of the Spirit of God called regeneration? Had their hearts been truly changed so that they truly embraced Jesus? but Woodfield wasn't the first preacher to talk about the new birth in fact there was one that spoke of it many thousands of years earlier and that is this preacher called Jesus turn with me to John chapter 3 John chapter 3 a very familiar passage to all of us I'm going to read John chapter 3 verses 1 through 8 now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, and this kind of just blows me away.

It's like, okay, it changes the subject, if you will. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Now we find in verses 1 and 2 that there is this Pharisee named Nicodemus.

He's been impressed with Jesus on some level. And he says, Rabbi, we understand that no one can do the things you do unless God's with him. And then Jesus makes this profound statement in verse 3 that doesn't seem connected, at least to me. He just says, let's get down to what's really important here. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Something must happen to you, Jesus says. Something must happen to you like the birth that brings new life into the world. You must have a new life. And that new life must be yours or you will never enter the kingdom of God Now note something here and this is very important for us to see This is not a command When Jesus says you must be born again, He's not saying to you, you, I command you, be born again.

That's not what He's saying, because it's something you can't do anything about. How many of you here, as my friend Dave Durnald once said, tugged on your daddy's shirt and said, Daddy, conceive me tonight, right? That ever happen to you? Is that how you were born? No, you had absolutely no say in your conception or birth. It was something that happened to you.

The same is true of this being born again. It's not something you can do. It's something that God must do. You don't have any control over your first birth. You don't have any control over your second. This is the sovereign work of God.

How does this happen? He tells us in verses 4-6. He says you must be cleansed and you must be born again of the Spirit. Now, this reference to water here has just caused all kinds of problems for people as they try to introduce baptism and so forth at this point. But I think what Jesus is saying, and I think he's saying this because later on, Jesus says to him in verse 10, Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

He's saying to Nicodemus, you should understand this already. This is nothing new. and I think he says that because in verse in verses 4 through 6 when he says unless you're born of water and the spirit you can enter the kingdom of God he's making a reference back to Ezekiel chapter 36 Nicodemus should have known this passage I think that's what Jesus is driving at turn back to it we heard it read this morning in our Old Testament reading I want you to notice what God says in this promise if you will of the new covenant of a people that will not be like His people then, but will be different. Ezekiel chapter 36.

We'll just look at verses 25 through 27. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules.

You see it not water It this cleansing that God talks about in the Old Testament where through the Holy Spirit He going to cleanse and renew the heart and give a new spirit so that His people in the new covenant will obey the will of God. By the way, all of you here who have embraced Jesus, that's words of hope for you. You may be struggling right now.

You may be thinking, man, I'm struggling through this particular sin. and understand that you have the Spirit of God and that God is going to work in your life to help you become more and more and more obedient. There's great hope in that. God doesn't leave us to just grind it out so that we get more righteous. He's given us His Spirit that's going to empower us.

That was His promise. That's what He's talking about here. This new birth is cleansing where we will become more tuned to God and we will have this new capacity to obey. And notice verses 7-8 as he talks about the wind. This is the sovereign work of God the Spirit. That is, it's completely under the control of God.

This is something no one controls. In other words, you have no control of the wind, do you? You hear it coming. You see its effects. You see all these things. But you can't control the wind.

No one can. You can only see its effects. That's what Jesus is saying here. You can't control this new birth, but you see its effects. Something happens to you. Something happens to you.

But this has to happen. You have to be given this new heart. You must have these new affections. You must have this new life. The reason why you have entrusted yourself to Jesus is God, the Spirit has worked in your heart to give you new births that you embrace Jesus with joy. by the way this is something that as we go to Romania and and this spring as as we head out again we're going to a new area Braila and everywhere we go these new areas this is always news this is about where we start with the guys because they come from a tradition that says it's all up to you and we begin teaching no no it's up to God God is the one in control of birth and so forth and this is about where we start with them in John chapter 3.

It's fascinating to see at the end of four years where they are praising God for his great mercy to them for giving them new birth. But they're not the only ones to embrace that. George Whitfield embraced Jesus words and he preached to lost sinners. that they must be born again. Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England in 1714. His father died when he was two.

His mother married another guy who was just, I don't know, just a loser, I guess. And they ended up in divorce, which in the 18th century, the 1700s, is rather unusual. And so George grew up with a single mom who ran an inn. He ran an inn. In grammar school, George liked reading and plays and acting, but he drops out to help his mother. When he's 18, he goes to Oxford University where he pays expenses by working as what's called a servitor.

Now, what's a servitor? If you wanted to work your way through college, you could be a servitor. That is, you waited on the students, your fellow students of a higher class. You ran their errands for them, you served them their meals, you were their manservant, if you will. And that's how he paid his way through Oxford. He was concerned for his soul, and he begins to pray three times a day and fasting twice a week.

Somehow, something in him has said, I must be right with God. In the second year of Oxford, a man by the name of Charles Wesley befriends him and invites him to breakfast. Now, Charles and John, his brother, Charles and John Wesley, from an upper class family, and it was unheard of for one of them to ask a servitor to go out for breakfast. Well, he invites Whitfield to join what he and his brother John have formed, the Holy Club.

This is a group of friends who give themselves to the determined pursuit of living holy lives. And they had a certain method of doing that. And because they had that method, they also got another name. You know what it was? Methodists. They were the Methodists.

So this is their holy club. They're determined that they're going to live holy lives. And so they bind together following these particular disciplines of prayer and fasting and so forth. about a year in he borrows a book called George borrows a book called The Life of God in the Soul of Man which shows him he says I must be born again or be damned Well now, now he's intent on being what God wants him to be.

But it isn't until 1735, when he is 21 years old, that he finds assurance in Christ, not in his works of holiness, but in the righteousness of Christ. He is the first of the Methodists to experience this full assurance that he belongs to Jesus. He is the first of the Holy Club to experience this new birth. Well, about a year later, Charles and John Wesley leave for mission work in Georgia.

And they leave George in charge of the Holy Club. now a little sidelight here the wesley's leave for georgia to become missionaries and it was on that trip that john wesley is converted you say wait a minute wait a minute i thought he was going as a missionary aren't missionaries christian people and the answer is they had it all mixed up it wasn't about their works it was about the righteousness of jesus and John did not come to understand that until he was a missionary to Georgia. And he was converted while he was there. Well, be that as it may, the Anglican Church ordains George Whitefield to the ministry, and he begins to preach.

Now, he decides as well to go to Georgia to follow his spiritual brothers, in fact, his spiritual father, John, to Georgia as a missionary, but his ship is delayed. And so he starts preaching in the cities of Bristol and London, and he just electrifies those cities with his preaching. He's an incredible communicator, and thousands start to pack the churches to hear him.

Well, he eventually gets to Georgia. He spends a little bit of time there, and he comes back to England, but when he comes back, all the pulpits are closed to him. The parish Anglican priests don't want him preaching in their pulpits. And so all the pulpits are closed to him So here what he does He does what the unthinkable thing to do He starts preaching outdoors And he starts preaching to coal miners as they coming out of the mines.

And he starts preaching to poor people. And he starts gathering thousands and thousands as they come to hear him preach. And many hear of the new birth and they are converted. This then sets the agenda for Whitfield's preaching. He will go where the people are and proclaim the good news. He will go where they are, not where they should be in church.

He'll go where they are and he'll preach the gospel to them wherever they are and proclaim the good news. Up until that time no one had heard about preaching outside. He just didn't do that. That wasn't proper. But he did it. In 1739 now, okay?

Talking about three years later, he returns to America and he preaches to throngs in New York and Philadelphia. Now remember, at this time America are just colonies. It's not a nation yet. Americans have just now starting to form their identity as Americans, but they see themselves as Englishmen. They see themselves as those who belonged to Great Britain.

They had their allegiance to the king and so forth. And so he comes to the colonies to preach. He starts in Philadelphia and New York. And he becomes friends with Benjamin Franklin. Now Benjamin Franklin, this may come as a surprise to you, but Benjamin Franklin was no friend of Christianity. Especially Whitefield's brand, which is Calvinist brand of Christianity.

Franklin hates it. But Franklin is a businessman. And he knows that this is a very popular preacher. And he knows that if he publishes his sermons, he could make money. Whitefield is a very astute, very, what's the word I want? If Whitefield were alive today, he'd be all over Facebook.

Okay? Whitefield would have a Twitter account. That's the kind of guy he was. And so he's starting to do something that no one's ever done before. He starts advertising in the newspapers that he going to be preaching somewhere Now Franklin no friend of Christianity but wants to make a buck knows if I publish his sermons I make money and if I advertise for him, more people will come, and I'll be able to sell more.

Right? So they strike up, it starts out as business, but they strike up this friendship. And of course, as he preaches, thousands upon thousands of people flock to hear him. And he travels up and down the colonies of America for at least two years. Now here's Whitefield. He usually was up at four o'clock in the morning.

He starts preaching at five or six, which to me, I could preach at five or six. It's just, will anybody come and listen at six o'clock in the morning? But evidently people did. And he would preach all day long. he would spend 40 to 50 hours a week in the pulpit. Now, this may come as news to you, but anybody who stands up here and preaches knows, anybody who preaches knows that it's almost like, and I don't want you making fun of me.

I'm just telling you the truth, okay? Preaching can be exhausting. And I tell folks, if I don't remember your names when I'm done preaching, My brain is oatmeal. I've known you for 30 years, and sometimes I can't recall your name when I'm done preaching. And I can't imagine somebody doing this for 40 to 50 hours a week. But it took a toll.

It did. It did. It took a toll. He would often be throwing up blood, you know, during the week. But he kept preaching. He just kept right on preaching.

And he becomes one of the sparks that ignites this thing that's called the Great Awakening. One of the greatest social upheavals in the history of England and America. It's called the Great Awakening. In both England, Scotland, and the American colonies, a great revival happens. People by the thousands are converted to Christ. It just sweeps across England and Scotland and America.

And people are converted. Men like Jonathan Edwards and a couple of brothers called the Tennant Brothers and many more also preach. And the Wesleys are back in England and they're preaching. And people, God just gives them great power. And thousands of people are converted. in the colonies and in America. It's almost hard to describe, but one historian put it this way, and this may go over the heads of most of you, but some of us lived in the 60s, okay?

I'm old enough to remember the 60s. It's been described like this. It's like the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-War Movement, and the urban unrest of the 60s all wrapped up into one ball. That's what the Great Awakening was like. it was unbelievable what was going on in these countries and he was one of the sparks of that he was the one that God used to get it going well he returns to England in 1741 to find that his dear friends the Wesleys have turned against him because he believes in predestination and they do not and his heart breaks over that.

He called John Wesley his spiritual father in Christ. And as you read his letters to Wesley, even during the time where they were, he just honors him over and over. He calls him my dear father and all these sorts of things. Even after meeting, they couldn't come to an agreement. And he writes, it would have melted any heart to have heard Mr. Charles Wesley and me weeping after prayer that if possible, the breach might be prevented.

But it wasn't prevented. They wouldn't. They couldn't agree. And the movement was forever divided between the followers of Whitefield and Wesley. And although we don't have time to go into it, they both formed Methodist societies. And Whitefield's was called the Calvinistic Methodists.

And the Wesley's were called the Wesleyan Methodists. And so there was this great break between them. And it broke his heart. But he continued his itinerant preaching throughout England and Scotland, and his preaching was attended with great power. He continued that itinerant kind of ministry for the next 21 years until he died in 1770. And he made seven trips to America.

Now that may not sound like much to you, but you remember what it was like back then? Any trip across the Atlantic to America, you could die. Your ship would disappear. But he came to this country He made five more trips here He was here seven times as well as continuing to preach in England On his last trip to America in 1769 he begins another tour preaching the gospel starting in Philadelphia in May of 1770 His body by this time is worn out and frail, and he's only 55 years old. he preached his last sermon with great difficulty on September 29th in a field in New Hampshire on top of a barrel he was still addressing the crowds and the very next morning he died in Newburyport Massachusetts September 30th 1770 in fact his remains were buried there in the Presbyterian church there.

Now, what can we learn from the life of George Whitefield? Well, we can learn from Whitefield only what the scripture already says. Whitefield's not going to tell us no figure in church history can ever tell us any more than what the Bible already says. But we can see the truth of scripture lived out in different ways. It's amazing to me to look back at some of these figures and to say I can see this in their life and I can see the same thing in another person's life, only lived out in a different way.

It's interesting to see how different people lived out their faith, not contrary to Scripture, but in different modes. And we can see those truths of Scripture played out in his life. And I'm just going to outline a few of them that we can learn. Here's one. The message of the new birth can literally transform a society. It can transform a society.

You might think that what happened in the 1700s was not that big of a deal because everybody was religious back then, right? Everybody was religious in the 1700s. And if you think that, you'd be wrong. You'd be wrong. Listen to a contemporary. This was written.

Listen to this. This is written about the time. Actually, this is written in 1701. What I'm going to read to you, and tell me if it doesn't sound familiar to you. was ever sodomy so common in a Christian nation talking about England was ever sodomy so common in a Christian nation or so notoriously and frequently committed as by two palpable evidence it appears to be in and about this city meaning London notwithstanding the clear light of the gospel which shines therein and the great pains taken to reform the abominable profaneness that abounds is it not a wonder the patience of God hath not consumed us in His wrath before this time?

Was ever swearing, blaspheming, whoring, drunkenness, gluttony, self-love, and covetousness at such a height as at this time we have? Now that's 1701. And he's saying homosexuality is rampant and drunkenness is just all over the place and self-love and covetousness. I mean, it sounds like he's writing about us, doesn't it? That's what they were seeing.

And that was the state of England and the American colonies at that time. Both countries, recipients of the Protestant Reformation, both having Puritans in their countries who expounded the word of God, by the 1700s, society had gotten so wicked that this is what someone is writing. You know, it's often said that the colonies in England were turned around in the Great Awakening.

If the Great Awakening had never happened, it is said that England would never have ascended to the place of a world power and America would never have come into existence. It was that bad. It was morally bankrupt. Not only was sin so widespread, read. But the church at that time had also failed. People in Anglican churches at that time were listening to coming to church and listening to stuffy, boring sermons about living good lives.

I hope no one can ever say that about the sermons that are preached here. Time will tell. But the point is, they would have these nice elaborate discussions about the highest good and all these sorts of things and give way, they're not preach the scriptures. It's all about morality and doing good in both America and England. And it has no effect, no effect on society at large.

Whitefield came preaching the truth that it was necessary to be born again. In fact, Whitefield was so pointed and his friends so pointed, they were writing sermons about unconverted clergy, about the pastors who are lost in darkness and sin and who are preaching these stuffy boring sermons on morality But I want you to hear some of the things that he says to these people I going to read part of one of his sermons And this is where he talks about where you put your hope, right? He says this, denominations.

The kingdom of God or true and undefiled religion doth not consist in being of this or that particular sect or communion. Perhaps, my dear friends, where many of you ask what reason you can give for the hope that is in you, what title you have to call yourself Christians, perhaps you could say no more for yourselves than this, namely that you belong to such a church and worship God in the same way in which your fathers and mothers worshiped God before you. Hear what he's saying?

Some of you are putting your hope in church. I go to church. Of course I'm going to heaven. Really. Again, as the kingdom of God doth not consist in being of this or that sect, so neither doth it consist in being baptized when you were young. Baptism is certainly an ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It ought certainly to be administered. But then, my dear friends, take care that you do not make a Christ of your baptism. For there have been many baptized with water, as you were, who were never savingly baptized with the Holy Ghost. But further, as the kingdom of God in true religion doth not consist in being baptized, neither doth it consist in being orthodox in our notions or being able to talk fluently about the Gospel.

You may have orthodox heads, and yet you may have the devil in your hearts. You may have clear heads. You may be able to speak as it were with the tongues of men and angels, the doctrines of the Gospel, but at the same time you may have never felt them upon your own souls. And hear what he says? Oh, you can even talk about the gospel, but you've never felt its power.

If you have never felt the power of them upon your hearts, your talk of Christ and free justification and having rational convictions of these truths will but increase your condemnation and you will only go to hell with so much more solemnity. Take care, therefore, of resting in a form of knowledge. It is dangerous. If you do, you place the kingdom of God in meat and drink.

Again, some of you perhaps may think I have not reached you yet, therefore I go further to show you that the kingdom of God does not consist in a dry, lifeless morality. I do not cry down morality, but so far as this, that you do not rest in your morality, that you do not think you're Christians because you're not vicious. Do you hear what he says? I love that.

That you do not think you are Christians because you're not vicious, because you now and then do some good action. why self-love will carry a man to perform all moral actions a man perhaps will not get drunk for fear of making his head ache a man may be honest because it would spoil his reputation to steal and so a man who has not the love of God in his heart may do moral actions but if you depend on morality if you make a Christ of it and go about it to establish a righteousness of your own and think your morality will recommend you to God my dear friends you are building upon a rotten foundation. You will find yourselves mistaken and the kingdom of God is not in your hearts. A great many of you may think that you go to church and receive the sacrament once or twice a year, although I do think that is too seldom by a great deal to have administered.

You may read your Bibles. You may have family worship. You may say your prayers in your closets and yet at the same time, my dear friends, you know nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts. You may have a token and receive the sacrament, perhaps at the same time be eating and drinking your own damnation. I speak from my own experience. I know how much I was deceived with a form of godliness.

I made conscience of fasting twice a week. I made conscience of praying nine times a day and received the sacrament every Sabbath day and yet knew nothing of inward religion in my heart till God was pleased to dart a ray of light into my soul and show me I must be a new creature or be damned forevermore. being therefore so long deceived myself, I speak with more sympathy to you who are resting on a round of duties and model of performance. You hear what he says?

You've got to be born again. You've got to have your heart changed. All this outward stuff isn't going to get you anywhere with God. Something has to happen in your heart. And that message transformed society. You know what?

It wasn't laws that did it. It was the preaching of the Gospel to people that just transformed those societies You know what else You ought to expect people to be converted You ought to expect people to be converted when you preach the new birth And boy, you know what? What Whitefield would do, and this was unusual, and I hope it's not unusual here, but he would plead with people to come to Christ.

He would say, you must come. Don't rest in your morality. don't rest any of that. You've got to come to Christ. I'm going to read again what he said. This is a sermon from Matthew 11, 28-30. Come, come unto Him.

If your souls were not immortal and you in danger of losing them, I would not thus speak unto you. But the love of your souls constrains me to speak. Methinks this would constrain me to speak unto you forever. Come then by faith and lay hold of the Lord Jesus, though He be in heaven. He now calleth thee. Come, all ye drunkards, swearers, Sabbath breakers, adulterers, fornicators, come.

All ye scoffers, harlots, thieves, and murderers. And by the way, they were all in His audience. And Jesus Christ will save you. He will give you rest if you are weary of your sins. O come, lay hold upon Him. Had I less love for your souls, I might speak less. but that love of God which is shed abroad in my heart will not permit me to leave you till I see whether you will come to Christ or no.

Oh, for your life receive Him. For fear He may never call you anymore. Behold, the Bridegroom cometh. It may be this night the cry may be made. Now would you hear this if you were sure to die before the morning light. So, expect people to be converted.

He did. He called on people to repent and to believe. Here's another lesson I think we can learn. Do your best to make the message of the new birth clear and available. Do your best to make it clear and available. He made it available because he used the technology of his day.

He would use everything at his disposal to get the message out. I think that's something we can learn. especially us old folks who can't quite figure out is that a twat or a tweet or a twit? What is it? We ought to be able to use those things and enlist them for the sake of the Gospel Technology is not in and of itself immoral It can be used for purposes of the Gospel.

And he was not afraid to make the Gospel clear. He would be dramatic in his preaching. And that's why the pulpits were closed to him. Because he wasn't proper. He would do things like pull out a judge's hat and put it on his head. And then stand there and act like God the judge. and have a dialogue going on, right?

In order to make it clear, his idea was, I must make it clear so that the most least educated person will understand everything I'm saying. And he had a love for drama, and he would use it. But he was a tremendous speaker. Listen to Benjamin Franklin describe Whitefield's appeal. I read this in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. It is a scream.

This tells you how effective he was. by the way Whitefield when he was in Georgia started an orphanage and so when he would preach he would take up collections for the orphanage and he would appeal to people to give money so here's Benjamin Franklin talking about listening to Whitefield I happened to attend one of his sermons in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection for his orphanage in Georgia and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded, I began to soften and concluded to give him the coppers.

Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that and determined me to give the silver. And he finished so admirably that I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all. Then he goes on to say that once he'd emptied his pockets, he tried to borrow money from the guy next to him. This is how effective he was. This is the kind of speaker he was.

God used him. And he used unorthodox means. He would think, and again, I think we need to learn from this. He would think outside the box. preach outdoors who's going to do that that's silly he did it he could not have preached to thousands of people as he did unless he was outside And that what he did He did whatever means that he had to reach people Another lesson.

Expect the message of the new birth to bring conflict. People won't like it. How do you know that? Well, people flocked to hear him preach. But the people who loved the comfortable religious life closed their pulpits to him. They didn't want the unwashed people among them.

And when you preach the new birth and people are born again, people who are horrible sinners, or people who need to hear that, how are you going to respond? Do you welcome them to hear the gospel? Or do you get uncomfortable and say, we don't want those kinds of people here? Whitefield lived out the command of Jesus, who looked upon lost sinners and had compassion and saw them as sheep without a shepherd.

His dearest friends, the Wesleys, turned against him because he spoke the truth. But he spoke the truth in love to them. John Wesley wrote this. The doctrine of predestination represents our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous one, the only begotten son of the Father, full of grace and truth, as a hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, a man void of common sincerity.

This is the blasphemy clearly contained in the horrible decree of predestination. And here I fix my foot. On this I join issue with every asserter of it, you represent God as worse than the devil. More false, more cruel, more unjust. That's John Wesley, his spiritual father. And he would have none of that stuff on predestination.

Whitfield replied, Jonah could not go with more reluctance against Nineveh than I now take pen in hand to write against you. And when I remember how Paul reproved Peter, I fear I have been sinfully silent too long. Now notice, Oh then, be not angry with me, dear and honored sir, if I now deliver my soul by telling you Think in this, you greatly err. For Christ's sake, be not rash.

Give yourself to reading. Study the covenant of grace down with your carnal reasoning. Now listen to this. He says this at the end of this letter to Wesley. It often fills me with pleasure to think how I shall behold you casting your crown down at the feet of the Lamb and as it were filled with a holy blushing for opposing the divine sovereignty in the manner you do.

Now he says, I look with pleasure on the fact that you're going to be in heaven, right? Casting your crown down, although you're going to be blushing because you're going to be embarrassed. But yet, yet, that was a nice little... I thought that was good. But the point is, he didn't look at Wesley and say, why, if you don't believe the same thing as I do exactly, then forget you.

He didn't do that. He said, we're going to be in heaven together. Eventually they were reconciled. They had their ups and downs and they were reconciled. So much so that when Whitfield died, Wesley preached. By Whitfield's asking, he preached his funeral sermon.

And even though we ought to expect conflict, Whitfield set a pattern of transcending denominational boundaries for the gospel now don't hear me wrong I'm not saying that denominational boundaries aren't good I think they are good I think sometimes good friends have good fences I think we all ought to know what we believe and be convinced of our beliefs but he saw the gospel as if you believe the gospel that someone has to believe in Jesus and be born again and I believe that then we can work then we can be together and I hope you can see some of that tonight that there is a kind of gospel ecumenism but it revolves around the gospel Not around structures not around oh let all feel good and be together But the fact that we believe the gospel. We believe the gospel, the true gospel. Not an adulterated gospel, but the true gospel.

Expect, and this is the last lesson I want to draw, expect the message of the new birth to change people. Now I'm not saying not just the new birth, I'm saying expect the message of the new birth to change people. Some might ask, if Whitefield was such a strong Calvinist, then why did he go out and preach like that? Have any of you ever thought that? Well, you Calvinists, you must not believe in preaching the gospel to people.

He believed it. He believed that no one was going to come to Christ unless the gospel was preached. Why did he preach and call sinners to Christ? Because he believed the scriptures. I want you to look with me at 1 Peter. This needs to be in our heads.

It needs to be burned in our brains. Here's the question that this answers. what is the means that God uses to bring about the new birth. Okay? 1 Peter 1, verse 1. I'm chapter 1, verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. Here what Whitefield believed He believed that the preaching of the Gospel produces new birth So if you want someone born again you give them the Gospel.

And if God in His sovereignty determines to use it, it is that which produces new life. You see? It is the Gospel that. So when you share the Gospel, and you may share it. Now notice, this is the word that was preached to you. That's what gave you new birth.

And so he knew, if I preach, people will be changed. Because that's the means that God uses to change their hearts. So you can't go around thinking, well I hope that person's born again so if I share the gospel with them they'll accept it. No. They'll be born again by you sharing the gospel. The word gets in there and gives them new birth.

And that's what he saw and that's what we need to be. And we ought to follow Whitfield's example so that no one can say, you stinking Calvinist you don't believe in the gospel and preaching it to people. Whitfield lays that to rest, but we can resurrect that accusation if we're not careful. It changed Whitefield. I find it instructive that one of Whitefield's closest friends was that crazy agnostic, Benjamin Franklin.

They started out in business together, but they became like that. In fact, Franklin invited the evangelist to stay in his home when he visited Philadelphia, and when he accepted it, Whitfield referred to Franklin's invitation as a kind offer for Christ's sake. And Franklin said, don't let me be mistaken. It was not for Christ's sake, but for your sake.

Okay? He didn't want anything to do with this Christ stuff. But Franklin, some years later, was saying this. Your frequently repeated wishes and prayers for my eternal as well as temporal happiness are very obliging. I can only thank you for them and offer you mine in return. The last surviving letter to Franklin Whitfield said this that he expressed his hope that he and his friend would be in that happy number of those who in the midst of the tremendous final blaze shall cry Amen.

He never saw. He never saw Franklin converted. But isn't it fascinating? That he loved them. The new birth changes us into compassionate people. How do you know you've been born again?

Do you have compassion on people who don't know Christ? And so it is that God continues to build his church. You know, not everybody's a Whitfield. But God uses his people to advance his kingdom. Sometimes He raises men like George Whitefield who will set the pace. Men that will transform whole societies.

And sometimes, most of the time, just about all the time, He uses simple people who love Him, who have been born again, and are willing to share the Gospel. God help us to be those kind of people. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this man of faith. help us Lord to be like him in the sense of desiring to see people born again that they might experience the joy of new life Lord help us to be as fearless we may not preach the thousands but Lord it's not the thousands that make us afraid it's the individuals in our lives that do so Lord God I pray I pray that we would be those who would share the gospel and see people brought to life we give you thanks in Jesus name Amen