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Sermon #1132

The Spiritual Life

A Sermon on John 3:8

Originally preached March 20, 1966

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Scripture

John 3:8 ESV KJV
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.” (ESV)

Sermon Description

What role does the Spirit play in the life of believers? Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones takes up this question as he preaches from John 3:8 in a sermon titled “The Spiritual Life.” He shows that the Holy Spirit is present all throughout the Christian’s life. This starts with the Holy Spirit bringing about conversion and how He works in the Christian to bring about sanctification and ultimately glorification. The Holy Spirit is also necessary in worship of God. This is what Jesus tells the woman of Samaria when He says that God is looking for those who worship in Spirit and truth. Worship that is devoid of the Holy Spirit is not true worship. The Spirit is also part of reading God’s Word. The only way to truly understand Scripture is to read it with eyes of faith. What does this mean for Christians? One of the most important things is that they must not rely on their own strength but look wholly to Christ and His Spirit. This is one of the most comforting truths in all of God’s word.

Sermon Breakdown

  1. The key to understanding eternal life and heaven is found in John 3:8. We must be born again of the Spirit.
  2. Nicodemus persisted in thinking religiously instead of spiritually. Religion should not be the enemy of faith.
  3. We must have a new mind, heart, and life. We need to be born again.
  4. We can test if we have been born again by our desire for knowledge of God.
  5. Our desire for God should be our first desire, like a child desiring its mother.
  6. We can know God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a personal way. The saints testify to this.
  7. "Communion of the Holy Spirit" in 2 Corinthians 13:14 means fellowship, communication, and partnership with the Spirit.
  8. We can know we have communion with the Spirit if we realize we are not doing everything ourselves. We recognize another influence.
  9. We become aware of the Spirit's presence and our dependence on Him. We realize we cannot rely on ourselves.
  10. We may go through "desertions" where God seems to withdraw Himself, to help us grow in trusting Him.
  11. The Spirit prompts, leads, and guides us. We see this in the lives of Philip, Paul, and others in Acts.
  12. The Spirit can give us special power and authority to do tasks He has assigned us, as with Peter in Acts 4.
  13. Peter was "filled with the Holy Spirit" in Acts 4:8, given wisdom, understanding, power, and authority to speak.
  14. The Spirit gives life, works in us, leads, guides, prompts, gives power, authority, understanding, and awareness of Himself.
  15. We must be born again to see and enter the kingdom of God. We abandon ourselves to God and pray for His Spirit.

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.