The Age of the Clinical
A Sermon on John 4:13-14
Scripture
13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing …
13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting …
Sermon Description
In this sermon on John 4:13–14 titled “The Age of the Clinical,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses two common extremes where people tend to fall: pure emotionalism and pure intellectualism. He points out that the world swings like a pendulum between relying solely on emotions and relying solely on intellect. Both of these extremes are excluded in Christianity; instead it embraces emotions that are grounded in truth. He shows that the world often excludes emotion to protect itself from pain. To illustrate this, he uses the philosophy of stoicism. This philosophy attempts to cut out all emotion in order to be unaffected and safe. Dr. Lloyd-Jones points out that this kind of false protection is only a partial solution. It merely ignores suffering rather than providing a solution. He describes Christianity as a balanced view of intellect and emotion. God created people as creatures that are made to do more than understand truth; they are made to feel truth. Moreover, their Savior wept over sin and suffering. Whereas the world would rob all of either knowing truth or feeling and experiencing it, but God would have His people weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.