Video Transcript: George Whitefield, The Preacher (documentary by Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

Video Transcript: George Whitefield, The Preacher (documentary by Martyn Lloyd-Jones) 

George Whitfield was born in the city of Gloucester on December the 16th 1714. Not in a Bishop's palace not in a clergyman rectory, but in the Bell in the olden unfortunately has been demolished by now. But it was very similar to this new wind in which we are now standing which was contemporary with it. His father died while he was quite a boy but his mother continued to keep the Inn and then he would serve beer and various other drinks. He was kind of transform the beginning from buyer kind of lovable character, and also by his sharpness his intelligence, but above all, by his gift of speech and of oratory is clear diction and elocution were quite outstanding. He could declaim Shakespeare can take part in Pleasant school. At 18 on a bottle 10 pounds he went up to Pembroke College Oxford. In exchange for free tuition. He served as a lackey to other more highly placed students. But his residence here was to be the great turning point of his life. This was the result of his meeting with Charles Wesley who introduced him to the meetings of the so called holy club. This was a club that met regularly in the rooms of John Wesley in Lincoln college on the first floor. The members of the club met together to encourage one another in the living of a holy life. They used to visit regularly the Oxford prison, and speak to exalt the prisoners. They would pray together, they read books together, but above all, they encouraged one another in good works. They would visit the poor and give them gifts. In addition to this, they fasted twice a week, and sometimes even more, which really tells us that that one period, He fasted so rigorously, that he could scarcely drag himself up the stairs. However, he and the Wesley brothers came to see subsequently that this was all wrong, that they were trying to justify themselves by works and good deeds. Then, having read a book called The life of God in the soul of men by Henry School, he realized that true Christianity was something in the heart, and that he needed a new nature. He realized he'd never been a Christian at all. So now he saw this with tears and prayers, and eventually, he was given a sense that his sins were forgiven. Indeed, this was even sealed to him as he put it, by the Holy Spirit in his heart. 

On returning to Gloucester, at the age of 21, he was ordained in the cathedral by Bishop Benson writing in his journal, I have thrown myself this day, blindfold into God's mighty hands. Week later, Whitfield preached his first sermon in public here in the Church of St Mary de Crypt. Perhaps we can do nothing better than read the letter which he himself wrote, describing the occasion to a friend. 

He said, "Curiosity drew a large congregation together, the site at first a little odd me. But I was comforted with a heartfelt sense of the Divine Presence, and soon found unspeakable advantage of having been accustomed to public speaking as a buyer at school, and of exalting and teaching the prisoners while at the university. as I progressed, I perceived the fire kindled till at last those who are young, and amidst a crowd who knew me in my childish tears. I trust I was unable to speak with some degree of gospel authority, and I have since heard that the complaint has been made to the bishop that I drove 15 mad, indeed such a complaint was made. But the wise old Bishop Bishop Benson, simply replied by saying that he wished and hoped very much, that the madness would not be forgotten before the following Sunday. "

He was not prepossessing to look at as the result of the nurses neglect during the measles. He has a cast in his left eye, which liver gained him the nickname Dr. Squintum. But it also had the curious effect of making everyone believe that the preachers I was upon him and could not be escaped. During the next 34 and a half years, he is estimated to have preached about 18,000 sermons. When Whitfield returned from America at the end of 1738, he found a great change in the attitude of the churches to him no longer was he received with open arms as he'd been in 1737. The prophets were close to him. This presented him with a problem. In addition to that he had become struck by the need of people like the benighted colleasum in the Kingswood district outside Bristol. They were living in debauchery and sin and no one went to preach to them and they wouldn't enter the churches. What could he do? So in February 1739, he took one of the greatest decisions of his whole life, it affected his entire future, and that of the whole Methodist revival, he decided that he must take the gospel to the people. So here on Hanah Mounted Kingswood, outside Bristol, he first preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in the open air. So Whitefield took his stand in this very spot and began to preach to this strange congregation. It took us this text the first three verses of the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, a part of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount preached in the open air. At first he had a congregation of some 200 it soon swell to 2000 and eventually to 20,000. Whitefield comments as follows on the response of his congregation, the first discovery of their being affected was to see the white cutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks as they came out of the colpets. At the end of this incident, Whitefield wrote in his journal, "I believe I never was more acceptable to my master, than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open air. "

Returning to London in April Whitefield found all the churches close to him, apart from St Mary's parish church in Ellington. He went there one Friday with the intention of preaching, but just as he was about to enter the pulpit, the church Warden questioned his title. Rather than create a scene, Whitefield decided to go out and preach in the church of the congregation followed him and others join them. And this was the real beginning of his opener preaching in London. He wrote in his journal that night, "since the self righteous men of this generation count themselves unworthy. I go out to the highways and hedges and compel harlots, publicans and sinners to come in, that my Masters house maybe filled. "

Another favorite spot of Whitefield's for this field preaching was mentioned Hampton, common in Gloucestershire, from this very spot, which is still known as Whitefield's tump. He preached many times to vast congregations of 20 or 30,000 people. Some have queried this as to whether it was possible, but there are contemporary records which assure us that people in Stroud, which is about a mile distant, could frequently hear him quite distinctly when he preached. He visited Wales many times and in 1743, he was elected as the first moderator of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist connection. 

The scenes when he visited Scotland baffle description, they will nothing less than a return to the first days of the early church. Thousands were added to the churches of all denominations, and in all these countries. His influence was almost as great in America as in this country. Some of his greatest services were held in Philadelphia, where he preached the vast congregations. Eventually a chapel was built for him there. And it is interesting that this became the first building of the University of Pennsylvania. Whitefield did not found that the nomination and he was not an organizer like his friend John Wesley. The Manistee came to founding the cause, was that he cooperated with the Countess of Huntington in building chapels, which were known as tabernacles in various parts of the country. We have here in what is known as the Rodborough Tabernacle, a perfect example of one of these chapels that were built by the Countess of Huntington, the mention of the name of Larry Huntington and reminds us of another most important point concerning George Whitefield in his preaching. Some would get the impression that he was just a Mahabharata appeal to drunken miles but this was far from being the case. 

He was equally popular with the gentry and the great invalant to take for instance, the well known actor David Garrick. Garrick said he could melt an audience from euphoric joy to tears merely by saying i'm pronouncing the word Mesopotamia in different ways. Garrick also said that he would willingly part with 100 guineas if he could only say The word "Oh", with the same pithos and effect as Whitefield, the grid, Lord Chesterfield, frequently listened to the preaching in the home of the Countess of Huntington. And the story goes, that on one occasion, Whitefield was using a great illustration to one similars of the parallel in time and in eternity. 

And it was a story of a blind beggar with a dog walking near the edge of a cliff leading to a great precipice. And Whitefield was describing this men, and how suddenly the dog left him there was the poor man's stumbling along and not knowing where he was going and drawing nearer and nearer and nearer to the edge of the precipice and in danger of falling to destruction at any moment, and he kept this up for such length of time and increased the tension to such an extent, that Whitefield was completely carried away and falling on his fist to the floor, cried out saying good God because he's gone such was the moving eloquence of this men. 

We have here an authentic relic of Whitefield, it's known as Whitefield's stick. Still more interesting and important is this char in this Roberta volatile and on this, a few lines written by one of the early ministers which read like this, if love of souls should be wanting here, remember me for I am Whitfield's chair, I bore his weight and witness to his fears, his earnest prayers, his interesting tears, this holy men, was filled with love divine art thou the same. Sit down and call me thine. 

On September the 29th 1770, at the age of 56, he preached his last sermon at a place called Exeter in New England, though extremely weak at the beginning, he preached for two hours. We ended our program here in London in Tottenham Court Road, where one of his tabernacles was erected. What is the explanation of the of this remarkable story of this apostolic and seraphic ministry? It was certainly not advertising and organization. It was not even his amazing eloquence and his indefatigable zeal, though they contributed. He himself would have said that it was largely the message, what was the message? It was the old message of the New Testament of the Protestant fathers and the Puritans. It was a declaration that we are all dead in trespasses and sins, and under the wrath of God, that we have to be called to repentance. It was a an emphasis on the absolute necessity of a new birth in the spirit. 

The ultimate explanation of Whitefield is the extraordinary unction and the anointing of the Holy Spirit that attended his preaching. He himself was always conscious of this, and always stressed that one should always preach a felt Christ to use the words of the Apostle Paul. Whitefield's gospel came to the people, not in Word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and with much assurance. Has this anything to say to us today? Surely it has, for men and the world are still the same as they were at the beginning of the 18th century. Still more important, Whitefield's God is still the same. We honor his memory best of all, by seeking with diligence, that same God sought by him and his friends and contemporaries.