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Outlines through Owen’s Work of the Spirit in Prayer

Posted on 10. Aug, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

At the bottom of the sidebar to the right you will notice the header “Print Resources.” Previously we uploaded Ryan McGraw’s study guide through John Owen’s, “Of Communion with God.” Now a second resource has been added: Daniel Hyde’s lecture outlines through Owen’s, “A Discourse of the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer.” These are intended to accompany the twelve lectures that are linked in the .pdf outlines.

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John Owen on Song of Songs 5:16

Posted on 04. Aug, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

It’s an assumed point of hermeneutics today that the Song of Songs is merely a love song, a poem between a husband and wife. John Owen reminds us of the ancient method of Christological exegesis, seeing in the Song a type and shadow of the mutual love between Christ and his Church. At the end of chapter 3 in “Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” Owen inserted a “Digression” in which he exposited Song of Songs chapter 5. At the end of this chapter, the Shulamite said of her beloved, “he is altogether desirable” (Song 5:16). Owen then concluded his exposition, saying:

When the spouse hath gone thus far in the description of him, she concludes all in this general assertion: “He is wholly desirable,—altogether to be desired or beloved.” As if she should have said,—”I have thus reckoned up some of the perfections of the creatures (things of most value, price, usefulness, beauty, glory, here below), and compared some of the excellencies of my Beloved unto them. In this way of allegory I can carry things no higher; I find nothing better or more desirable to shadow out and to present his loveliness and desirableness: but, alas! all this comes short of his perfections, beauty, and comeliness; ‘he is all wholly to be desired, to be beloved;’”—

Lovely in his person,—in the glorious all-sufficiency of his Deity, gracious purity and holiness of his humanity, authority and majesty, love and power.

Lovely in his birth and incarnation; when he was rich, for our sakes becoming poor,—taking part of flesh and blood, because we partook of the same; being made of a woman, that for us he might be made under the law, even for our sakes.

Lovely in the whole course of his life, and the more than angelical holiness and obedience which, in the depth of poverty and persecution, he exercised therein;—doing good, receiving evil; blessing, and being cursed, reviled, reproached, all his days.

Lovely in his death ; yea, therein most lovely to sinners;—never more glorious and desirable than when he came broken, dead, from the cross. Then had he carried all our sins into a land of forgetfulness; then had he made peace and reconciliation for us; then had he procured life and immortality for us.

Lovely in his whole employment, in his great undertaking,—in his life, death, resurrection, ascension; being a mediator between God and us, to recover the glory of God’s justice, and to save our souls,— to bring us to an enjoyment of God, who were set at such an infinite distance from him by sin.

Lovely in the glory and majesty wherewith he is crowned. Now he is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; where, though he be terrible to his enemies, yet he is full of mercy, love, and compassion, towards his beloved ones.

Lovely in all those supplies of grace and consolations, in all the dispensations of his Holy Spirit, whereof his saints are made partakers.

Lovely in all the tender care, power, and wisdom, which he exercises in the protection, safe-guarding, and delivery of his church and people, in the midst of all the oppositions and persecutions whereunto they are exposed.

Lovely in all his ordinances, and the whole of that spiritually glorious worship which he hath appointed to his people, whereby they draw nigh and have communion with him and his Father.

Lovely and glorious in the vengeance he taketh, and will finally execute, upon the stubborn enemies of himself and his people.

Lovely in the pardon he hath purchased and doth dispense,—in the reconciliation he hath established,—in the grace he communicates,— in the consolations he doth administer,—in the peace and joy he gives his saints,—in his assured preservation of them unto glory.

What shall I say? there is no end of his excellencies and desirableness;—”He is altogether lovely. This is our beloved, and this is our friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” (Works, 2:77–78 )

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Reading John Owen on Hebrews

Posted on 02. Aug, 2010 by Ryan McGraw.

Our own Ryan McGraw has written a little article for The Banner of Truth (June 2010), “Thoughts on Using Owen on Hebrews.” Thanks to the good folks over at The Banner for letting us post it here as a .pdf.

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“Some Thoughts on Reading the Works of John Owen”

Posted on 23. Jul, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

Thanks to the Banner of Truth I am making available as a .pdf Sinclair B. Ferguson’s helpful article, “Some Thoughts on Reading the Works of John Owen”. This article was first published in the Banner of Truth 152 (May 1976): 3-10.

Happy reading.

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John Owen on Pastoral Prayer

Posted on 13. Jul, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

One area of John Owen’s theology where there is scant secondary material is his doctrine of worship, or, liturgical theology. This is seen in a survey of the growing secondary literature on Owen in which one comes across only two articles that deal directly with his liturgical theology (Douglas Jones, “Liturgy Lessons from Owen,” Reformation & Revival 5:3 [Summer 1996]: 111–118; A. Craig Troxel, “‘Cleansed Once for All’: John Owen on the Glory of Gospel Worship in ‘Hebrews,’” Calvin Theological Journal 32:2 [November 1997]: 468–479). One of Owen’s most important writings on worship that has remained relatively unknown is his 1662 polemical treatise, A Discourse Concerning Liturgies, and Their Imposition. Written just before the Act of Uniformity went into effect on St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1662, and the subsequent “Great Ejection,” it gives us a glimpse into his liturgical principles and practices. The key to understanding the liturgical theology in this treatise is the doctrine of Christian freedom. Quoting Galatians 5:1 throughout, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage,” Owen taught that Christ has liberated the Church from the yoke of the Mosaic Law and the yoke of Pharisaic law with regards to liturgical ceremonies.

One main point that flowed out of this liberty and that is of immense practical relevance today is in regards to pastoral prayer. Owen’s point was simple and powerful: Jesus Christ gifts those who serve as his ministers with all they need to accomplish their ministry, not only in terms of preaching, but also in terms of praying publicly. In what follows let me present Owen’s argument and then make some applications for us today.

Owen’s Teaching

Owen contrasted the ordinances of worship under Moses, which were many and burdensome, with those ordinances instituted under Christ in the New Covenant, which were few, and consisted of “preaching of the word, administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of discipline,” and all “with prayer and thanksgiving”(Works, 15:8, 10).

Importance of Ephesians 4

In proposing this, Owen went on to substantiate this spiritual ability of prayer that Christ has given pastors to administer his worship in an exposition of one of his favorite texts: Ephesians 4. How were pastors enabled to build up the Church? Based on Ephesians 4 Owen said, “by the communication of grace and spiritual gifts from heaven unto them by Christ himself” (Works, 15:11). God had done this with the Levites of the Old Testament, enabling their shoulders to bear the ark and their arms to slay the sacrifices. Now that these ordinance were removed and the gospel’s spiritual worship put in their place, God again has “undertaken to supply the administrators of it with spiritual strength and abilities for the discharge of their work, allowing them supply of the defect of that which he hath taken upon himself to perform” (Works, 15:11). In summary, Owen’s point was that since the Lord Jesus Christ delivered his disciples from the yoke of Mosaic ceremonies, God has appointed the ordinances, those to be ordained to administer them, and the gifts necessary to administer these ordinances in the New Covenant (Works, 15:12).

Why was this so important to Owen? It was because of the context in which he pastored and wrote. The prelates of the restored Church of England justified their imposition of the Book of Common Prayer by insisting that the apostles used liturgies. Owen saw this as a denigrating of the ministry, and therefore of Christ himself. In a moment of sarcastic humor, Owen said that anyone who believed Peter composed forms of prayer and homilies for the disciples “must fetch his evidence out of the same authors that he used who affirmed that Jesus Christ himself went up and down singing masses!” (Works, 15:16) Underlying the prelates’ position was the objection that while the apostles had extraordinary gifts, ordinary ministers did not have these gifts and therefore needed the Prayer Book. Those who desired to impose a liturgy said the ministers of England had a disability “to celebrate and administer the ordinances of the gospel, to the honour of God and edification of the church, without the use of them” (Works, 15:17). Owen responded by saying that if the bishops and pastors after the apostles did not need forms of prayer, from where did their ability to pray and lead the people of God come? If their ability came from Jesus Christ, did these ordinary bishops and pastors have any gifts beyond what Jesus promised? Moreover, if this was the case with these ordinary ministers, did Jesus promise these gifts for all ordinary ministers to the end of the world? (Works, 15:17–18) Again, Owen said that to say Christ’s provision was not sufficient for goals of edification and glorification or that he no longer gifted ministers as he did with the apostles were both “equally blasphemous; the one injurious to his wisdom, the other to his truth, both to his love and care of his church” (Works, 15:48).

Evidence from the Church Fathers

In refuting the imminent imposition of the Prayer Book, Owen delved into patristic history to show that there was not “any attempt to invent, frame, and compose any liturgies for prescribed forms of administering the ordinances of the gospel.” He even cited the Roman cardinal, Baronius, who said the ancient churches’ practice of prayer “is wholly silent as to the use of any forms amongst them” (Works, 15:21, 22). Owen adduced the writings of Eusebius, Polycarp, Clement, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian, especially noting that Origen, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr spoke not of imposed prayers, but only described prayers that were offered. Justin even spoke of prayer “according to our abilities” (Works, 15:22, 23; cf. Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch. 67).

Improving Christ’s Gifts

To say that Christ no longer gifted his ministers as he did the apostles was either blasphemy because it meant he no longer kept his promise or it was an indictment upon ministers who were negligent and careless in not improving whatever gifts they did have. It was incumbent, then, upon ministers to stir up and make effectual their gifts. As Owen said, in an expression of his experimental theology,

I suppose all impartial men will grant that there ought to have been a return unto Him endeavoured from whom that were gone astray . . . Finding themselves at the loss wherein they were, should they not have searched their hearts and ways, to consider wherefore it was that the presence of Christ was so withdrawn from them, that they were so left without the assistance which other ministering in their places before them had received? Should not they have pulled out their single talent, and fallen to trading with it, that it might have increased under their care? Was not this the remedy and cure of the breach made by them, that God and man expected from them? Was it just, then, and according to the mind of Christ, that, instead of an humble returnal unto a holy, evangelical dependence on himself, they should invent an expedient to support them in the condition wherein they were, and so make all such returnal for hereafter needless? (Works, 15:27–28).

So what of those in the ministry who seemed not to be gifted as others? Owen’s first response was to question their calling: “I shall desire them to consider whether indeed such persons be rightly called unto the ministry . . . there seems to be a direct failure of the promise of Christ, which is blasphemy to imagine” (Works, 15:48–49). Owen’s second response was more positive. Those who were truly called but did not feel they had the requisite gifts needed were called upon “to stir up the gifts that they have received by the use and exercise of them” (Works, 15:49).

Since the using of Christ’s gifts edifies the church, Owen inquired how these gifts “may be improved, so that they may ‘excel to the edifying of the church,’ which is expressly required of them” (Works, 15:52). The word “improve” was used in the seventeenth century to mean using something in a profitable way; to benefit from something (e.g., Westminster Larger Catechism, Q&A 167). How does a minister do this? “Edification, then, depends on the improvement of gifts, and the improvement of gifts on their due exercise according to the mind of Christ” (Works, 15:52). To improve the gift of prayer a minister had to use his gift. This meant he needed to pray, and not merely to read. This was essential as any lack of exercise of these gifts, whether by neglect or hindrance of them by others, was to hinder the church’s edification (Works, 15:53).

Contemporary Application

What can we learn from John Owen’s teaching on pastoral prayer in A Discourse Concerning Liturgies, and Their Imposition? There are four areas of application that I believe are good and necessary for us to draw from his work.

First, he would have us as pastors and those studying for the ministry pray fervently that the Lord would enable us to “fan into flame the gift of God” within us (2 Tim. 1:6; ESV). We must not neglect our gifts (1 Tim. 4:14) but must improve them. Paul uses a word here in 2 Timothy 1:6, anazopurein, that is used nowhere else in the New Testament. This word signifies giving new life to a fire; to rekindle it. We fan our gift, which is likened to a flame, as Owen said, by using our gift. One of his contemporaries, Matthew Poole (1624–1679), elucidated upon this idea when he said,

He adviseth him to put new life unto that holy fire (the word signifies the recovering of fire choked with ashes or decaying) which God had kindled in him, by daily prayer, and meditating on the things of God and use of his gifts, improving those spiritual abilities which God had given him (A Commentary on the Holy Bible, Volume III: Matthew–Revelation, 791).

To fan into flame our gift of prayer we need to pray in private, we need to mediate upon the Word and the Lord, and we need to use our gift in public.

Second, Owen would have pastors and ministerial students study prayer and pray during their study. To study prayer may seem an odd suggestion, but it is helpful. While the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray by praying through us (Rom. 8:26), he also uses the means of other ministers as models of prayer. The studious pastor and student should be acquainted with the development of liturgical prayer from the patristic era through the modern period by acquaintance with Bard Thompson, Liturgies of the Western Church, and William D. Maxwell, An Outline of Christian Worship: Its Development and Forms. To read some of the best prayers in the Reformed tradition, we need to read Charles W. Baird, The Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches. Two of the great Puritan works that deal with public prayer are William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying, and Matthew Henry, A Method for Prayer. Finally, two recent works that discuss and give samples of prayer are Hughes Oliphant Old, Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Worship, and Terry Johnson, Leading in Worship.

We also need to pray during our study. Reading and translating Hebrew and Greek, reading commentaries, and writing sermons must not be academic or perfunctory. It must be saturated in prayer. I have found the longer I am in the ministry the less time I take in actually reading and writing and the more time I spend praying over what I have read and written as I prepare for preaching on the Lord’s Day.

Third, Owen would have us challenge ourselves. If fanning into flame our gift of prayer means that we need to exercise ourselves in public prayer, then we need to challenge ourselves week after week to pray in public and not merely to read prayers. To young ministers I would issue this challenge: at the beginning of your ministry write out your prayers as you do your sermons, but little by little take less and less into the pulpit until you are able to pray extemporaneously. When we challenge ourselves in this holy manner, we decrease and the Lord increases; we are humbled and he is exalted; we are weak but he is strong. And in doing this, the Lord will begin to use us in leading our people before the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16).

Fourth and finally, Owen would have our institutions that prepare men for the ministry to teach public prayer. Speaking from a North American vantage point, the “art of prophesying” has been falsely divided. Our seminaries teach preaching, but not prayer. For the Puritan father William Perkins, these two were held together. The art of prophesying meant both the art of preaching as well as praying. In the former, students need to be taught how to speak from God to his people, but in the latter, how to speak from the people to their God.

According to John Owen, then, Jesus Christ as head of the Church has gifted those who minister in his name to exercise their ministry for his people’s edification and for the glory of God. We need to believe this; and believing, we need to act upon it, working hard to fan our flame in studied prayer, in challenging ourselves to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in teaching our students to do so as doctors, professors, theologians, and pastors.

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Tracking Down an Owen Quote

Posted on 12. Jun, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

This week I received in the mail a book that comes highly recommended: Dale Ralph Davis, The Word Become Fresh: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts (Ross-shite, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2006). Doing so led me on an expedition in John Owen. How so? Well, on the very first page of chapter one he discusses the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in interpretation and offers up a juicy quote from John Owen:

For a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of Scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by his Spirit, is a high provocation of him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who thus proudly engages in a work so much above his ability (The Word Become Fresh, 1).

Davis cites this in endnote one as coming from Richard L. Pratt, Jr., He Gave Us Stories (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1990), 404. So I pulled out my Pratt (1993 reprint from P&R), turned to page 404, and noticed in endnote fifteen the above quote. Pratt then cites this as coming from J. Owen, Pneumatology: Or a Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit (Philadelphia: Towar and Hogan, 1827), 204–5. He also says to see Owen’s Works 4:121–234. Tracking this work down was a piece of cake, given the wonder of Google Books. Yet what I discovered was the work Pratt cites that Davis cites is “Abridged by the Rev. G. Burder.” Reading it is obvious.

I finally was able to track the real quote down in Owen. It is found in his massive work called Pneumatologia and specifically book seven of that work, which is entitled, Synesis Pneumatike: Or, The Causes, Ways, and Means of Understanding the Mind of God as Revealed in His Word, With Assurance Therein. This can be found, as Pratt cites correctly, in Owen’s Works 4:121–234. Here is the real quote. It’s basically the same, but I offer it up for purity’s sake:

Yea, I must say, that for a man to undertake the interpretation of any part or portion of Scripture in a solemn manner, without invocation of God to be taught and instructed by his Spirit, is a high provocation to him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who so proudly and ignorantly engageth in a work so much above his ability to manage. (Works 4:204)

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Updated Audio through Owen’s Mortification

Posted on 08. Jun, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

John Owen’s 1656 treatise, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, is a classic of Christian devotion and encouragement to piety. Recently I begun a series of Wednesday evening lectures through it. You can read it online at Google Books. Here are the lectures to-date:

• A Foundation of Mortification
• The Business of Mortification
• The Spirit and Mortification

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How to Meditate on the Glory of Christ

Posted on 11. May, 2010 by Ryan McGraw.

Meditation is a difficult duty. Most Christians struggle even with where to begin with respect to this duty. It is particularly important for us to mediate upon the Person and work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, since beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is the primary means by which we are transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). In his devotional work, The Glory of Christ, John Owen has provided five useful ways that we can meditate upon the glory of Christ as a divine/human Person. Our congregation in Conway found these instructions particularly helpful, so I pass them along with the hope that they will help you in your devotion to Christ (you can read the full section in Owen, Works, 1, 312–322).

1. Consider that the knowledge of Christ as fully God and fully man in one Person is the most useful object of our contemplations and affections (1, 312–314). Christ’s identity as the God-man places him in a unique position to make your redemption possible. He also reveals the glory of God to your understanding in a unique manner.

2. Diligently study the Scriptures with the express purpose of finding the glory of Christ in them (1, 314–316). The Scriptures assert that Christ is their central object (Lk. 24:26–27, 45–46; 2 Cor. 3:13–16). The three primary ways that Christ is revealed in the Old Testament is by direct descriptions of his Person and his incarnation, by prophecies concerning him, and by the Old Testament ceremonies of worship (Owen richly expands each of these). Too often Christians read the Old Testament in a manner that is no better than the Jews. Even if we do not see Christ in everything in the Old Testament, we must be careful to take our knowledge of Christ with us while reading the Old Testament.

3. Meditate frequently upon the knowledge of Christ that you have already obtained, both from Scripture and from sermons (1, 316–317). Failing to use and to build upon the knowledge of Christ that we have already received is the “fundamental mistake” standing behind the lack of spiritual growth among so many Christians. This is the error of treating the doctrines of Christ as fundamental and basic, thus taking them for granted. Owen adds that although we must not isolate ourselves from the world, we must love solitude as well. Without some measure of regular solitude, meditation upon the Lord Jesus Christ is impossible.

4. Do not simply rely upon fixed times set aside for meditation, but think upon Christ at every possible occasion throughout the day (1, 317–320). This is particularly important during those seasons in which Christ “withdraws” himself from our “spiritual experience.” If we know what it is like to “miss” Christ sometimes, then we should take comfort from the fact that this means that we have truly known what it is to have fellowship with him. When the comforts of communion with Christ diminish, we must seek him with the desperation with which a thirsty man seeks water. Christ acts in this way for our good, since his withdrawals increase our dependence upon him and the fervency with which we seek him. The truth is that Christ is always near to us, but “the principal actings of the life of faith consist in the frequency of our thoughts concerning him” (1, 319).

5. Accompany your thoughts of Christ with admiration, adoration, and thanksgiving (1, 320–322). The more we contemplate our divine/human Lord, then the more we shall realize that he is beyond the limits of our comprehension. This should lead us to love the Lord Jesus Christ with every faculty of our souls. In heaven, we shall exercise all of the faculties of our souls simultaneously in the worship and service of Christ, but in this world both our understanding and our strength is incomplete. Therefore, sometimes our thoughts of Christ should lead to admiration, others to adoration, and still others to thanksgiving according to our understanding and our capacity. You must never lose sight of the fact that the purpose for which you know Christ is worship.

Owen closes this section with the useful reminder that meditation upon the glory of the Person of Christ only occurs in the context of a heavenly-minded life. This is an important thought. Perhaps one reason why meditation is so hard for us is that we have not set our minds on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in everything that we set our hands to (Col. 3:1–2). Meditation upon the glory of Christ is a jarring and painful interruption when our minds are trained to run along the well-worn grooves of our earthly routine. Let us never forget that we are pilgrims and strangers in the world! Let us never be surprised at the difficulty of heavenly-mindedness on this side of glory! Let us make use of means to help us contemplate the glory of our Savior more fully! And may we come to our heavenly Father who is able and ready to help us to meditate upon the glory of his Son through the power of the Holy Spirit!

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Audio Lectures through Owen’s “Mortification”

Posted on 06. May, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

I have recently begun a new Wednesday evening series of lectures through John Owen’s, “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers.” You can follow along reading the treatise online at Google Books here as well as listening to the audio here.

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Word & Sacraments or the Holy Spirit?

Posted on 01. Apr, 2010 by Danny Hyde.

I’m having another late night tonight, winding down my ThM thesis on John Owen’s liturgical theology. It’s interesting as I read his sermons on issues related to worship how often Owen repeats himself (I think Mark made this point once with Goodwin and “cutting and pasting”). His sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:11 (Works 9, 441–452) does this, but there is one section where he breaks some new ground in my reading of him that has opened my mind this evening. In speaking of Christ’s presence with his church, he distinguished between his presence “essentially . . . by the immensity of his divine nature” his presence “in his human nature” and his presence “by his Spirit” (Works 9, 443–444). It is this final mode that is principal and fundamental. After proving this from John 14–16 and the account of the giving of the Spirit in Acts, Owen gives a very memorable and striking line that will surely stick with me: “And Christ hath no vicar, but the Spirit” (Works 9, 444). What a great line.

It’s what he goes on to say, though, that is really the substantive material. If the Spirit is Christ’s vicar in this age, what does that mean for us? Let me let Owen speak for himself:

Some begin to say in our days, that Christ is no otherwise present than by the outward ordinances of it [the church],—his word and sacraments. I grant he is present with them, as pledges of his presence, and instruments wherewith, by his Spirit, he doth effectually work; but to make them the whole presence of Christ with us, I do not know what better church-state we have than the Jews, when they had the law of old (Works 9, 444).

Is Christ with us today by the word and sacraments or by the Holy Spirit? Too often we who have come to the Reformed church from all forms and manifestations of evangelicalism have replaced the Holy Spirit with the word and sacraments. I have been guilty of this. Of course Owen shows that this is a false dichotomy, but the emphasis needs to be on the Holy Spirit, and not the instruments of his presence. I once heard Hywel Jones give a lecture at Westminster Seminary California on this very point as he said his coming to the States was a shock to him. He said he heard so much emphasis on the sacraments, on law-gospel preaching, on biblical theological preaching, on Christ-centered preaching, but almost no talk of what makes those methods effectual: the Holy Spirit. May God give us the sensitivity to the need of the work of the Spirit in our churches today with and through the word and sacraments.

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