The Spirit; Leading and Love
A Sermon on John 1:12-13
Scripture
12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, 13who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.
12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Sermon Description
What does it mean to be led by the spirit? In this sermon on John 1: 12-13, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones emphasizes the important balance between the Spirit and the Scripture. He goes on to assess the Quakers beliefs and explains how although they may have started off as Christians, because they forgot Scripture and chose to purely be led by their “inner spirit”, they went astray and openly said that the Bible isn’t really necessary. They denied Christ and the teachings of Christ due to their inner spirit leading their beliefs and neglecting to correct their beliefs with Scripture. Dr. Lloyd-Jones states that the moment you separate the Spirit from the Word, you are creating disaster. In this sermon on the Spirit leading and love, he also states that you cannot separate doctrine and practice and assesses the differences in godly love, friendship love, physical love, and pure sinful lust. Homosexual and adulterous people arrive in their position because they are putting emphasis on inner light and inner spirit instead of having a balance. Dr. Lloyd-Jones tells us that love is the fulfillment of the law, so if love does not fulfill the law then it is lust. Overall, the Word of God comes from the Spirit and God gave us Scripture that we may be safeguarded against evil spirits and our own evil thoughts so we should balance the Spirit and Scripture.
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.