Well, it is a joy to be here with you tonight. Thank you for coming. And it is a great honor to be in this church where the Word of God is so faithfully honored and ministered. I know that I am with kindred spirits and like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ. And I trust and pray that our time that we will spend together tonight will be of great profit. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the Gospel of John, John chapter three. And I want to begin by looking at a passage of Scripture by way of introduction to what will be our main theme this evening, which will be George Whitefield. But in John chapter three, beginning in verse one, we have. This extraordinary encounter between the Lord Jesus Christ and the most religious man in all of Israel, a man by the name of Nicodemus. Can we read in verse one, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. To be a Pharisee was to be among the spiritually elite within Israel. These were the most conservative of the conservative of the Jews of the day. They were staunchly Bible believing. They believed in the sovereignty of God. They believed in many essential truths that were taught in Scripture. And the word Pharisee means one who is set apart or a set apart one. They desired to be removed from the defilements of this world and wanted to be as removed to the things of God as one could possibly be. And that Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews means that he was within this inner circle of the Pharisees. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, which were 70 men who served as the governing body of Israel. It would be much like serving on an elder board or on a board that would oversee a ministry. They were those who were like today, combining the Senate and the Supreme Court. together into one ruling body. And Nicodemus had risen to the very top of the ladder of religiosity in his day in Israel, so much so that later in verse 10, Jesus will refer to him as the teacher of Israel, the most prominent the most articulate, the most knowledgeable teacher of the Word of God in all the nation. And so there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And this man came to Jesus by night. He came by night because As he came on this mission, he understood that there was something that was missing in his life. He no doubt was unable to articulate what that void was in his life. He recognized a unique quality about the Lord Jesus Christ, had heard of, if not observed, many of the miracles that our Lord was performing. And so came to him by night because it would be way too embarrassing for him to come by day. He, the teacher of Israel. And also, John is wanting us to know that as he comes by night, he comes under the cloud of spiritual darkness and that he steps out of the darkness now to come have this encounter with him who is the light of the world. And send to him rabbi, which means teacher. We know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. It sounds very respectable that he would call the Lord Jesus rabbi and acknowledge that he has performed so many wondrous signs. But Jesus was not a man who was sent from God. He was God, the man who has come now for the way of salvation. And so we read in verse 3, Jesus answered him. Please note, no question has been asked. The omniscient eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ looks down into his very soul and reads him like an unopened letter. And Jesus answered and said to him, and Jesus puts His finger upon the live nerve within this man's life and says, truly, truly, I say to you. Now, the word truly, truly means amen, amen. It is repeated twice for dramatic emphasis to underscore the importance of what Jesus will have to say. Everything that Jesus had to say was inspired, was inerrant, was infallible, were the very words that the Father had given him to say. Yet, some things that Jesus said rose to a higher level of importance. Some truths are more important than other truths. And by Jesus saying, truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus is escalating the importance and the significance of what he is about to say as he addresses Nicodemus. And as he addresses Nicodemus, he addresses each and every one of us here tonight, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. It's one thing to enter the kingdom. You can't even see the kingdom in order to enter it until you are born again. There is a vast difference between the word may and can. The word may is a word of permission. The word can is a word of ability. And as Jesus addresses Nicodemus, it was the most shocking statement that has ever been addressed to his religious heart. Jesus said, Unless you are born again, you have no moral ability. You have no ability whatsoever to even see the kingdom of God because you are living in a realm of spiritual darkness. To be born again means that the one who is spiritually dead who has no spiritual life whatsoever, which is the state in which every person who is born physically into this world enters the human race in a state without any spiritual life whatsoever, there must come a time, there must come a place, there must come a moment when God so works upon that spiritually dead soul. That there is the impartation of eternal life to that dead soul. And it is a work of God's grace that only God can perform. Just as there was nothing that you and I could do to bring about our own physical birth, so there is absolutely nothing that you or I can do To experience the new birth, accept God by His mercy and God by His sovereign grace. Speak life into the dead soul. And what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is that your religion will not give you a right standing before God. That all of your spiritual and biblical knowledge will not bring about your new birth, that your outward morality, your good works, your identification with the purposes of God externally will in no way grant you spiritual sight to see the kingdom of God. The new birth is the life of God in the soul of a man, whereby we become a new creature and the old things are passed away and new things have come. We receive a new mind and a new heart and a new will and a new disposition. We become an entirely new person from the inside out. as we are conceived by the Holy Spirit within our own soul. Nicodemus in verse 4 said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? There's no way he can hit the rewind button in his life and go back and start all over again. Jesus answered in verse 5, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, and water here is a picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the sovereign act of regeneration that washes and cleanses the soul. There are two emblems for the new birth that are used in this passage. One is water, in verse 3. The second is wind, in verse 8. And these both represent the sovereign activity of the Holy Spirit of God in applying the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ to the soul of one who has no life. So Jesus said, unless one is born of water in the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh. In other words, that which is conceived physically and born physically experiences a physical birth and has a physical existence and has a physical life. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit, the Spirit. Jesus is speaking of a second birth. Jesus is speaking of a birth from above. Jesus is speaking of the new beginning in a new life that only God can give by regeneration. So Jesus in verse 7 said, Do not be amazed that I said to you. The fact that he said these words indicates that Nicodemus was amazed. He was shocked. He was stunned. No one has ever said to him, you are outside of the kingdom of God. Those who were there in the nation, if they were to point the finger to one person, to one man, who for sure would be in the kingdom of God, the nation would have arisen and pointed a finger at Nicodemus and said, he is the prototype and the profile of the one who is in the kingdom. But he is now amazed. that Jesus would speak in such a straightforward manner and expose his own lostness to his own heart. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. No matter how much you know, no matter how morally pure you may live, no matter how much you identify with a worshiping community, no matter how much you are identified with the work of God, no matter how much you serve the Lord, no matter how much you give of your life in trying to further what you perceive God to be doing here upon the earth, You must be born again. And then Jesus said in verse 8, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. You cannot see the wind. You cannot control the wind. You cannot direct the wind. And you cannot stop the wind. The wind is unseen. But the wind is felt. And the force of the wind is overpowering. The force and power of the wind can level buildings in a second. and uproot trees as though they were a dandelion, and leave behind in its path those who have been displaced from where they once lived. Even so, Jesus says, the power of the Holy Spirit must so come upon your life that though the Spirit who is invisible and unseen, nevertheless, you must feel His convicting power and His pounding upon the door of your heart and His movement into your dead soul. You must be under the power and the sway of the Holy Spirit of God, who alone can create life where there once was no life. And except you be born again, you will not see, neither will you enter the kingdom of God. It was this very message some 300 years ago that a young evangelist by the name of George Whitefield came to this land and rode up and down the colonies before this nation was birthed, and preached and proclaimed the new birth with such power and with such force that it is estimated in the Great Awakening, through Whitefield's preaching as well as others who joined with him, that a tenth of the population of the colonies was born again and birthed into the kingdom of God, that some 50,000 people conservatively were swept into the kingdom of heaven under the powerful preaching of George Whitefield, who was known most for his message on the nature and the necessity of the new birth. One woman came to Whitefield and said, Why do you keep saying that we must be born again? And Whitfield said, because, dear woman, you must be born again. And so this message must ring in our ears again. It must run its course up and down this eastern seacoast. And it must spread like a fire throughout the land in America and envelop the entire earth. Tonight, I want us to consider this grand evangelist, this grand itinerant at George Whitefield. I sent him before you tonight as a figure in church history because I want you to see what God did in the life of a man. I'm not holding up Whitefield so much as I'm holding forth the grace of God in the life of George Whitefield. And what encouragement it should draw We should draw from his example. I agree with John Piper. My best friends are dead men. And what an encouragement in my own life it has been to study church history. I am first and foremost an expositor of the Word of God. But I have adopted on the side, almost like a hobby, the study of church history. And I have written several books, one of which is on George Whitefield. And I want to introduce you to one of my friends, George Whitefield. If John Calvin was the greatest theologian in the history of the church, if Jonathan Edwards was the greatest philosopher, if Charles Spurgeon was the greatest pastor, preacher and the greatest evangelist since the Apostle Paul, I believe arguably is George Whitefield. This man was an evangelistic force, the likes of which we may never see again. Whitfield had one hand upon the United Kingdom, and he had the other hand upon the colonies of this land, and was the principal instrument that was used by God in bringing about two revivals on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean at the same time. He would cross the Atlantic Ocean 13 times in a day in which it would take two to four months to cross the Atlantic Ocean one time. He spent over two years of his life on a ship crossing from the United Kingdom to these early colonies. And God used this man wherever he went for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the 34 years of his ministry, Whitfield preached some 18,000 sermons, and that often to multiplied thousands of people. If we take into account his informal messages, this number easily reaches 30,000 sermons in 34 years. You can do the math on this. This is a little less than a thousand sermons a year. The man was so given to the proclamation of the gospel of Christ that it is virtually unprecedented in all of church history. It is estimated that he preached face to face to over 10 million people before there was any media, before there was any electronic devices. In the American colonies, it is estimated that he preached to 80% of the colonists. At one time or another, had seen and heard Whitefield preach. More people saw George Whitefield than ever saw George Washington. When Whitefield came to Philadelphia, it was a city of 13,000 people. He preached to 6,000 in the morning, 8,000 in the evening. It built to 10,000. And for his final sermon, he preached to 25,000 people in Philadelphia, twice the population of this city. which would become the first capital of our nation. In New York, he preached to 8,000 in a field, 15,000 on a Sunday morning, and then 20,000 in the afternoon. In Boston, he preached to the largest gathering that ever assembled in the colonies at this time to a crowd of 30,000 people. He made 15 trips to Scotland, two trips to Ireland, one each to Gibraltar and Bermuda and Holland. Whitfield could truly say, the whole world is now my parish. Wheresoever my master calls me, I'm ready to go and preach the everlasting gospel. Those who were the greatest preachers had the greatest respect for George Whitfield. I began with the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Spurgeon said, Other men seem only half alive. Whitfield was all life, all fire, all wind, all force. He said, my own model, if I may have such a thing in subordination of my Lord, is George Whitfield. And with unequaled footsteps, must I follow Whitfield's glorious track. J.C. Ryle, the noted Anglican Bible teacher of the 19th century writes, I believe no English preacher has ever possessed such a combination of excellent qualifications as Whitefield. Whitefield, in my estimation, Ryle says, stands alone as a preacher of the English language. Robert Murray McShane, the favorite son of Scotland, who burned out for God at age 29, said before he died, oh, for just one week of Whitefield's life. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, George Whitefield is beyond question the greatest English preacher of all time. This man was simply a phenomenon. And Lloyd-Jones would go on to say, other men merely existed. Whitefield lived. What was it about Whitefield? What was God doing in the life of Whitefield? What was the grace of God in the life of George Whitefield bringing about. And what must there be in my life for God to use me where he has placed me? In the time that we have, I want to set before you eight character qualities from the life of George Whitefield. I would love to tell you more of his story and of his biography, but I want to go straight to what I think made Whitfield such a usable instrument in the hand of God. Would you like for God to use you in your life? Would you want God to use you to the full, to the maximum? Then I believe these eight character qualities must be present in our life. because they are all, in one way or another, a representation of Christ's likeness. Number one, Whitefield had an uncommon piety. As great was his giftedness, I believe it can be said his godliness exceeded his giftedness. Whitefield was much for God. because he was much with God. Whitefield was a man of the word. And as soon as he was converted at age 21, he began to study the Bible on his knees, praying over every word of the scripture that was open before him. Arnold Dalimore writes in his biography of George Whitefield, we can visualize Whitefield at five in the morning in his room over Harris's bookstore. He is on his knees with his Bible, his Greek New Testament, and a volume of Matthew Henry spread before him. And with intense concentration, he reads a portion in English. He studies its words and senses in the Greek. and then considers Henry's exposition of the whole, until finally he prayed over every line and every word, feasting his mind and his heart upon the Word of God, which he said, if we once get above our Bibles and cease making the written Word of God our sole rule, we are open to all manner of delusion and in great danger of making shipwreck. of our faith. And not only a man of the Word, deeply rooted and grounded in the soil of Scripture. And when you read the sermons of Whitefield, he was like what Spurgeon said of John Bunyan. Why, the man is a walking Bible. Prick him anywhere and he bleeds Bibline. Just out of Whitefield's mouth comes the Scripture and Scriptural vocabulary. and scriptural illustrations and scriptural manners of expression. His whole sermon was a flowing of the Bible from his mouth as it rose up from his heart. And he was also a man of prayer, as we think of his piety. Whitefield would write in his journals, oh, what sweet communion had I daily with God in prayer. How often have I carried out myself when sweet meditating in the fields, much like Jonathan Edwards would experience, he said, be much in secret prayer, converse less with men and more with God. He said, we once spent a whole night in prayer and many a time at midnight and one in the morning after I'd been wearied almost to death in preaching and writing and conversation and going from place to place. God imparted new life to my soul and enabled me to intercede with him for an hour and two and a half hours. Into the darkness of the night. He said, live near to Christ. Martin Lloyd Jones said no man ever knew more of the love of Christ than this man. It was his piety that made him such a usable instrument in the hand of God. As you consider your own heart, your own life, your own soul. Let us remember that it is a pure and clean instrument whom God will use to carry out his purposes here upon the earth. How must you be more grounded in the Word? How must you be more in the presence of the Lord in prayer? How should you be living closer to the Lord Jesus Christ? How must you know more of the love of Christ in your life? It is absolutely essential to be mightily used by God. Who you are is more important to God than what you do. Your character is more important than your career. Your maturity is more important than your ministry. How you live is more important to God than where you live. The very essence of our usability begins with our own personal piety. Second, not only his piety, but second, Whitfield had a self-effacing humility. And really, piety and humility go hand in hand together, because the man who is truly godly will be humble. Now, the word humble meaning to be lowly of mind. Whitfield never lost sight of the fact that he was a sinner saved by the grace of God and that he was what he was, as Paul said, by the grace of God. And anything good in his life was the result of the work of God's grace and his word in his own life. Whitfield considered himself, quote, less than the least of all. In fact, Catulli would sign his letters, less than the least of all. If I was to say that to one of my friends, it would almost be like a joke, knowing I surely don't mean that about myself, less than the least of all. But for Whitefield, it wasn't in humor. For Whitefield, it was a self-deprecating humility, for he was not comparing himself with others, but comparing himself with the Lord Jesus Christ and realizing how much growth there was yet to be experienced in his life towards God. Whitefield would say, let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified. He would say, let the name of Whitfield die so that the cause of Christ may live. It is a known fact. He would not allow anything to be named after him. There was no denomination. There was no movement. There was no college. There was no institution that would be named after Whitfield because he intentionally sought to remove himself so that his master might be in the place of preeminence. He would say, let the name of George Whitefield be forgotten and blotted out as long as the name of the Lord Jesus is known. The Lord Jones would say he was like Calvin, the most humble man. Why did God use Whitefield? Because he was a humble man. It is the leading virtue of all the graces of God. It is where the Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes. It is where Paul begins the first step of walking in a manner worthy of your calling in Ephesians 4, is to walk with all lowliness of mind and humility. God will use the man and the woman who lowers themselves in His presence that the preeminence of Christ might be known. Third, not only a self-effacing humility made Whitefield such a usable instrument, but third, he had an uncompromising gospel. Whitefield was a powerful preacher because he preached such a powerful gospel. Other men may preach the gospel better than me, he said, but none can preach a better gospel than me. And as he preached the gospel, he was known for the three R's, ruined by sin, redeemed by the Savior and regenerated by the Spirit. Those three pillars upheld his gospel message. He was continually preaching that the human race is ruined by original sin. He said we are all chargeable with original sin or the sin of our first parents. He said as he preached, you are lost, undone without him. And if he is not glorified in your salvation, he will be glorified in your destruction. If he does not come and make his abode in your hearts, you must take up an eternal abode with the devil and his angels. If he does not come and abide within your hearts, he says the sentence of death is upon you. The stench of death is within you. He spoke of a great gulf that separated holy God from sinful man, and that the entire human race has been inflicted with the fatal disease of sin, and that the wages of sin is death. And Whitefield understood that no one can be saved until they know they're lost. And Whitefield understood there is no good news until you first know the bad news. And Whitefield boldly and unashamedly proclaimed the condemnation of the entire human race outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he also preached redeemed by the Savior. And oh, he is known for holding forth the glorious grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, secured at Calvary's cross. And he said, I am never better as a preacher than when I stand at the foot of the cross and point upward to my Savior and speak of the glories of His death upon the cross. Look at Him, He said. Look then by faith to the God-man whom you have pierced. Behold Him bleeding, panting, dying upon the cross with arms stretched out, ready to embrace you all. He said our mountains of sin have fallen upon Him. On Him, God the Father, has laid the iniquities of all that shall believe on Him. He bared their sins in His body on the tree. There, Whitefield said, there by faith, O mourners in Zion, may you see your Savior hanging with arms stretched out and hear Him, as it were, speaking to your souls. Behold how I have loved you. Behold my hands and my feet. Look! Look into my wounded side and see a heart flaming with love, love stronger than death. Come! Come, sinners! Come into my arms! Come, wash your spotted souls in my blood. See, here's a fountain opened up for sin and for uncleanness. See, O guilty souls, how the wrath of God is now abiding on you. Come, make haste, hide yourself in the cleft of my wounds, for I am wounded for your transgressions. I am dying that you may live forever. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so I am here lifted up upon a tree. See how I have become a curse for you. The chastening of your peace is upon me. I am thus scourged, wounded, crucified, that by my stripes you may be healed. Oh, look unto me, all you trembling sinners, even to the ends of the earth. Look unto me by faith and you shall be saved." Whitfield's heart all but leaped out of his chest as he preached the sin-bearing, wrath-absorbing, grace-giving, Death of Jesus Christ upon Calvary's cross. And he preached regeneration by faith. This work of Christ upon Calvary's cross, whereby in His death He placated and propitiated the righteous anger of God toward sinners, This death of Christ by which He has reconciled holy God and sinful man through the blood of His cross and has brought the two together. This death of Christ must be applied to the life of the sinner. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit that Whitefield preached and proclaimed. It is the doctrine of the new birth. It is the doctrine of regeneration. It is the sovereign operation of God the Holy Spirit at the appointed time in the souls of those for whom Christ died. Whitefield said, the doctrine of our regeneration is the very hinge on which the salvation of each of us turns. Arnold Dallimore writes throughout these sermons, there runs one great scriptural truth. The truth indicated by Whitfield when he preached the doctrine of the new birth, that except you be born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whitfield cared not if you were a Baptist, if you were a Presbyterian, if you were Anglican. All Whitfield wanted to know is, do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Whitefield said, or Dallimore added, there can be no doubt that the man on the street in Bristol or Gloucester or London, when asked what does Whitefield preach, they would have answered, you must be born again. This uncompromising message is our uncompromising message. God will honor the preacher. God will honor the teacher. God will honor the church. God will honor the parent. God will honor the believer who honors his word and who upholds the truth saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Why did God use Whitfield? Because this was a man who would stand up and declare the truth to all who would come to hear him. He was not a respecter of persons. No matter who you are, no matter from whence you have come, except you be born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Fourth, Whitefield had an unquenchable passion. Whitefield ministered in a day in which it was well known that the ministers of that day read their manuscripts with a monotone voice, standing like frozen statues in the pulpit, the bland leading the bland. And Whitefield burst onto the scene preaching the Word of God. He burst onto the scene exhorting and pleading and urging and begging and weeping and crying and calling and summoning and inviting. The Anglican ministers of his day were controlled and dignified and stuffy and stoic and cold. Whitfield came with demonstrative body language and commanding gestures and a loud voice and proclaimed with a heart on fire for God. Whitfield sought to move his listeners. One observer of Whitefield's preaching noted, I could hardly bear such unreserved use of tears. Whitefield would often say to those who criticized him for his tears in the pulpit, he said, can you blame me for weeping when you will not even weep for your own lost soul? I will weep for you. It was said of Whitefield, by one observer, I can hardly bear such unreserved use of tears. And the scope he gave to his feelings, for sometimes he exceedingly wept, stamped loudly and passionately, and was frequently overcome that for a few seconds you would suspect he could never recover. John Wesley spoke of the fervency of Whitefield's zeal, unequal since the days of the apostles. John Carrick, a noted student of Whitefield's preaching, said, as he preached, his whole person became alive in a powerful movement of body and countenance and voice. J.I. Packer described Whitefield's preaching as arms lifting, foot stamping, passion with overflowing compassion. Amos Billings stated, Whitfield was a flame of fire in the pulpit. Lloyd-Jones said the thing that characterized the preaching of Whitfield was the zeal, the fire, the passion, the flame. He was the most convicting and arresting preacher. Whitefield once, as he stood to preach, said, if I had come to speak to you in my own name, you might rest your elbows upon your knees and your heads upon your hands and sleep. But once in a while, look up and say, what is this babbler saying? But I have not come to you in my name. I have come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I must have a hearing from you today. He was a man who must be heard. And it literally arrested the attention of those who sat under his powerful preaching. If you and I are to reach those around us, there needs to be tears, there needs to be summoning and urging and begging as though people are truly perishing around us without Christ. Fifth, He had an unrivaled theology. Whitfield was thoroughly reformed in his doctrine, strictly Calvinistic to the core. He had a towering view of the supreme authority of God over every circumstance and over every person's destiny. Packer said Whitfield possessed, quote, a classic Augustinian frame of sovereign grace. Lee Gaddis, a compiler of his sermons, has said, Whitfield was a firm believer in the Reformed doctrine of salvation and Reformed biblical theology. Mark Knoll concurs, Whitfield preached on the bound will, the electing power of God, and the definite atonement, all themes of Calvinism. And yet, Whitfield said early in his ministry, I embrace the Calvinistic scheme Not because of Calvin, but Jesus Christ has taught it to me. He would write to Wesley in a letter and said, I never read anything that Calvin wrote. My doctrines I have from Christ and his apostles. I have been taught them of God. Later in his life, he would read Calvin, but because he was such a student of the word of God, he could come to no other conclusion. But these grand truths of the sovereign mercy of God, he preached total depravity. He said man is nothing as a free will to go to hell, none to go to heaven. So God works in him to will to do of his good pleasure. He preached unconditional election. He said, we are his by eternal election. In fact, this sermon was the last sermon Whitfield ever preached on English soil before sailing to America, where he would die at Newburyport, Massachusetts. In his closing words to the English nation, in his farewell sermon, preaching from John chapter 10, verse 27 and following, he said, we are his by eternal election. The sheep which thou hast given me, says Christ. They were given by God the Father to Christ in the covenant made between the Father and the Son from all eternity past. So the doctrines of our election fill my soul with holy fire and afford me great confidence in God my Savior, which He'll preach definite atonement Listen to one sentence from Whitefield. Christ purchased those whom he calls his own. He redeemed them with his own blood so that they are not only his by eternal election, but also his by actual redemption. Whitefield preached effectual grace, the effectual call of God. As he would preach the gospel, he would also say, oh, that he may call you by his spirit. and make you a willing people in the day of His power. For I know My calling will not do unless He, by His efficacious grace, compel you to come in." And he preached preserving grace. He believed that those who have come to saving faith in Christ are eternally secure in the sovereign hands of the Savior and not a one of His sheep. shall perish. These are the great and glorious truths that Whitfield preached, and these glorious truths must be preached in this hour and in this generation far and wide. The great movements of church history, the Reformation, the Puritan age, the Great Awakening, the modern missions movement, the grand Victorian era of preachers have all been led by those men who preached the sovereign grace of God. Fifth, an unrelenting evangelism. Whitefield was a harvester of souls. He was a fisher of men and constantly casting and drawing his net. Wherever Whitefield was, whether in a church, or in an open field, or in a city square, or on a ship, or in a house, or with whomever he was, whether he was with royalty, or coal miners, or the cultured, or the uncouth, or the highly educated, or lowly workers, he was continually lifting up Christ and calling them and beckoning them To come now, this very moment, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, O Lord, give me souls, or take my soul. Lloyd-Jones said, Whitefield was the first to see that Christ's ministers must do the work of the fishermen. And they must not wait for souls to come to them, but must go after souls and compel them to come in. He did not sit tamely by the fireside. mourning over the wickedness of the land. He dived into holes and dived into corners after centers. He set on foot a system of action which up to his time had been comparatively unknown. J.C. Ryle said, Whitfield gave no altar call, did nothing to encourage an emotional response, he believed that the only way to truly know those who were saved were those who would continue to live for the glory of Christ after they profess Christ. Listen to Whitefield. As he preached with evangelistic fervor, as he gives the free offer of the Gospel. Whithill said, I offer you salvation this day. The door of mercy is not yet shut. There does yet remain a sacrifice for sin. And for all who will accept the Lord Jesus Christ, He will embrace you in the arms of His love. Oh, turn to Him. Turn in a sense of your unworthiness. Tell Him how polluted you are. Tell Him how vile you are. What, fear you that the Lord Jesus will not accept you? Your sins will be no hindrance. Your unworthiness no obstacle. If your own corrupt heart does not keep back you from Christ, He will receive you. He loves to see poor sinners coming to Him, Whitefield said. He is pleased to see them lie at His feet and pleading His promises. If you will come to Christ, He will not send you away without His Spirit. He will receive you. He will bless you. Oh, do not put a slight on infinite love. He only wants you to believe on Him that you might be saved. This is all the dear Savior desires, that you may leave your sins and come to Him and sit eternally with Him in the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let me beseech you. to come to Jesus Christ. I invite you all to come to Him now and receive Him as your Lord and Savior. He is ready to receive you. I invite you to come to Him that you might find rest for your souls. He will rejoice over you if you will come. He will be glad. He calls you by His ministers. Oh, come to Him. Come! He is laboring to bring you back from sin and from Satan to Himself. Open the door of your hearts and let the King of glory come in. But you'll say, oh, my heart is full. It is quite full. But I must speak or I shall burst. What? Do you think your souls have no value? Do you esteem them as not worth saving? Are your pleasures in this world worth more than your souls? Had you rather regard the diversions of this life than the salvation of your souls? If so, you will never be partakers with Him in glory. But if you come to Him, He will supply you with His grace here, now, and bring you to glory forever. And there you may sing praises and hallelujahs to the Lamb. Oh, come to the Savior now. He was a most passionate evangelist and his Calvinism did not restrain him. His reformed truth fueled him. Number seven, he had an unconquerable drive. Whitfield was a driven man. There was a work that God had given him to do. And he must do the work of him who sent him while it is day. For night is coming when no man can work. He had an indomitable spirit. He did the work of 20 men. He did the work of forty men. He could not sit by idly. He could not be subdued. It is difficult to find any figure in all of church history, regardless of the century, who was so thoroughly spent in proclaiming the gospel as George Whitefield. He literally threw himself into the work of reaching those without Christ. If denied a church pulpit, he would preach in the open field across the street. If persecuted by an angry mob, he would withstand all threats and continue to preach. When on a ship, he would preach to all those who were there. Of this internal drive within Whitefield, he said, I am never better than when I am on the full stretch for God. In other words, I am at my best when I'm giving my all for God. He said, I am often weary in the work, but I am never weary of the work. And Whitefield said, oh, the ministry is all but killing me. He spoke of his continual vomitings and he said there is only one cure and that is the pulpit. to yet preach again for the restoration of his own soul. He said, I would sooner wear out than rust out. He said, the more we do, the better we do. He said, the best preparation for preaching on Sunday is to preach every day of the week. He said, I preach as a dying man to dying men. He said, may I die preaching. On another occasion, he said, may I die in the pulpit. He said, whenever I die, bury me under that pulpit, either the one that I just preached in or the one that I am to preach in. At this time, Whitefield is buried in Newburyport, Massachusetts, under the pulpit of that church where he died next door. after having preached in Exeter, New Hampshire, and then come down to Newburyport where he was to preach the next day. As he came into town, the word spread that Whitefield is in town. A huge crowd gathered around the pastor's house. Whitefield went up to the second floor, swung open the windows, and preached for an hour on Saturday night, invited and become The next morning, Whitefield was so drenched in sweat, what he called a gospel sweat, that he died that very night at five o'clock in the morning from an asthma attack as he literally preached himself into glory. Whitefield was driven Arnold Dallimore, his famous biographer, says in the second volume, as he's moving year by year through Whitefield's life, he finally comes to a point and he says, one year was just like another. In other words, there's no reason for me to continue to tell the story of Whitefield because there is never any change. There is never any diversions. Each year is the same. And wherever he goes, he is preaching the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, Lord Jesus, I am weary in your work, but not of your work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for you one more time in the fields and seal your truth and then bring me home. It was that that he prayed before his last sermon. Finally, number eight, he had an unusual power. How can anyone live like this? How can anyone preach like this? How can anyone storm from one continent to the other? How can anyone preach to 30, 40, 50,000? Oh, I wish I had the time to go back into some of those seasons of his life and tell you how, at the age of 23, only a Christian for two years, how he went to London as a 23-year-old young preacher and literally took London by storm. And in the course of that summer, it is estimated that he preached to one million people over the course of the different meetings. He would go into the parks, unannounced and uninvited, where all of the ruffians and the hooligans would gather. The rich upper class had their clubs to go to. the blue-collar worker, if you will, had no place to go but to the public parks, Hyde Park, Morris Field. And there they would gather by the thousands. There would be cockfights. There would be bear fights. It would be a zoo of humanity. And Whitefield said, I must go and preach. There would be as many as 50,000 people, a sea of people. His supporters said, don't go in there, you won't come out alive. Whitefield said, I must go. He wasn't preaching to the choir. And so Whitefield went in. The people were so dense, he couldn't even walk in. They put him over their head and passed him over their head, person by person, like a wave at a football game. And they passed Whitfield into the very center. And there he would stand on a rock wall and lift his hands and say, I've come here today to talk to you about your soul and preach the gospel and preach the necessity of the new birth. And those who were hardened in sin would come under the conviction of their sin. And he held forth Christ in a way that was virtually irresistible to their hearts. That the Savior would take them in. The Savior would give them a new life. The Savior would wash them and cleanse them and clothe them with the very perfect righteousness of Christ. That the Savior would give them a new heart and give them a new life. And that the Savior has gone ahead and is preparing a new home in heaven for those who will believe upon Christ. And then with the urgency of the moment, would plead with them to give their life to Christ, believing that God has His elect. And that God has those who are predestined to believe. And that God will use the simple preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to call out and to bring a bride to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the power, the sovereign, supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in the life of George Whitefield that energized him and enabled him and endued him with power from on high, Whitefield was unusually clothed with power by the Holy Spirit. He himself was a lowly servant. He himself was a weak vessel, but he was filled with divine unction from on high. Lloyd-Jones said of Whitefield's preaching, there is a tremendous difference between merely uttering truths and preaching. You may have a correct and an orthodox message, Lloyd-Jones writes, but it does not follow that you are preaching. Orthodoxy is not enough. There were orthodox men in Whitefield's time But they were comparatively useless. You can have a dead orthodoxy, Lloyd-Jones said. McWhitfield, he said, was overwhelming. Lloyd-Jones says, he tells us about the time that he preached to the poor coal miners in Kingswood. And as Whitefield preached, their faces were black with soot as they came out of their holes in the ground. And Whitefield could see white channels down their cheeks and realize that it was the tears that was washing away the black soot from their face as they were hearing of one who is a friend of sinners, who has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Samuel Davies was the president of what was to become Princeton, who followed Jonathan Edwards as the fourth president of Princeton. And Samuel Davies needed to raise money for Princeton and got on a ship and suffered storms coming to England to raise money for the infant institution of what was to become Princeton. And upon landing in London, the first question he asked was Whitfield in town. They said, oh, he'll be preaching on Sunday. There were three tabernacles that were built for Whitefield. And whenever Whitefield was in London, that's your pulpit, that's your church. And the word would spread that Whitefield is in town. They would gather to hear Whitefield as he is traversing the United Kingdom. So Samuel Davies, of whom Martin Lloyd Jones said was the greatest preacher America ever produced. Greater than even Jonathan Edwards. Samuel Davies came to hear Whitfield. Davies would record. It became clear to me quite soon in the service that Mr. Whitfield must have had an exceptionally busy week. Obviously, he had not had time to prepare his sermon properly. From the standpoint of construction and ordering of thought, it was very ordinary. It was a poor sermon. But the unction that attended it was such that I would gladly risk the dangers of shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean many times over. in order to just be there under its gracious influence." This was Whitefield, a man upon whom the hand of God rested so heavily upon him. There is no explanation for what God did in and through the life of George Whitefield, except that God was with him, and that God raised him up for his appointed hour in history, and that God used him in such a way that many would argue he was the true founding father of what was to become the United States of America. as this nation would be birthed in the flames of the Great Awakening. This is my friend, George Whitefield. And I trust that as Paul, when he said, follow me as I follow Christ, that we will follow our elder brother to the extent that he follows Christ. You and I need mentors, examples, role models, like those in Hebrews 11 who are part of a cloud of witnesses who have already run their race, and by the example of their lives, are cheering us on from the grandstands of heaven to widen our stride and to pick up our pace and to sprint to the finish and to run the race that God has set before us. How will God use your life for the rest of your days here upon the earth? What is your purpose? What is your mission? What is your ministry? As long as we are here upon this earth, it is our goal for souls and it is our goal to reach as many people as we can with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and to bring them bound in the golden chains of the gospel, to be laid at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever it is you are doing for Christ, I challenge you, I encourage you to press on in the upward call of God. And may the example of George Whitefield spark within us a desire to do yet more for His all-glorious kingdom. And let us hit the finish line running full speed ahead. With our chest out. And fall into the arms of our Savior. Or we will rest with him forever. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven. We thank you for those who have gone before us and who have run their race well. We thank you for champions of the faith who by the example of their lives inspire us, move us, motivate us, convict us, encourage us to press on, to do yet more for you here upon this earth. May we never cease our service for you. And when our last day comes here upon the earth, May we be found as Whitefield, proclaiming the glories of Christ to those who are around us, wherever you have placed us in your kingdom. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.