Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Book Review: Growing In the Spirit

Growing in the Spirit (Assurance of Salvation #4) D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. 1989. Crossway. 158 pages. [Source: Bought]

The gospel of John is one of my favorite, favorite books of the Bible. And John 17 is definitely a great chapter. Martyn Lloyd Jones published four sermon collections on John 17. These sermons were originally preached in the early 1950s. I think you'll find, if you take the time to read it yourself, that his messages are still very relevant, very timeless. Growing in the Spirit belongs in this collection, in a way, because many of the sermons are grounded in John 17, particularly John 17:17. (I'm guessing that verse was one of the author's favorite verses!) But it also is set apart from the previous three volumes. The book itself seems to be solely devoted to the work of the Holy Spirit, to the notion of "growing in the Spirit." If the previous volume focused on WHAT sanctification is, this last volume focuses on the HOW…or should that be WHO!

Take Time to Be Holy (John 17:17)
"Mortify, therefore…" (John 17:17)
Spiritually Well Dressed (John 17:17)
The Work of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26)
Different in Everything (1 Peter 2:13-17)
The Yearning of the Holy Spirit (John 17:17)
Be Filled With The Spirit (John 17:17)
Controlled by The Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)
The Temple of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 4:30)
The Wiles of the Devil (Ephesians 6:10-11)
The Unity of the Spirit (John 17:20-23)
With Him in the Glory (John 17:24)

Favorite quotes:
To be saved is not primarily to be happy, it is not primarily to have an experience; the essence of salvation is that we are in the right relationship to God. From the beginning, the great promise of God with regard to salvation is this: "I will be your God, and ye shall be my people" [eg Lev. 26:7], so if we find that our tendency is to view salvation in any way except directly in terms of our knowledge of God and our relationship to him, it is a false tendency. (506)
The thing which marks and differentiates the Christian is that he is someone who is in a given relationship to God. The great doctrine of God, the being and character of God, must override everything else. The whole purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to us and to bring us into communion with him, which is the life eternal. (506)
If I do not read my Bible in such a way as to come to a deeper knowledge of the greatness and holiness of God, there is something wrong in my reading, and the same is true if my reading of the Bible does not humble me, or bend me to my knees. (511)
It is my business as a preacher not only to preach to others, but to myself also, and the real value of my preaching to others is the extent to which I preach to myself before I preach to them. (513)
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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