The Sermons of George Whitefield [Kindle Edition]

Lee Gatiss (Author, Editor)

Book Description

George Whitefield was the leading evangelical clergyman of the eighteenth century and one of the driving forces, humanly speaking, of revivals on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet until now, his sermons have been left as an untapped resource for today's church.

Editor Lee Gatiss has thus reproduced 57 sermons that were originally authorized to be published by Whitefield himself in the late 1700s, in addition to two sermons edited by Gillies for Whitefield's Works, and two more that are of great importance. Gatiss includes careful and extensive footnotes detailing the historical and theological background to Whitefield's preaching, which puts the man and his messages into context for a new generation of readers. The text has also been updated for the twenty-first century with modern grammar, spelling, and punctuation—revised in a manner that leaves Whitefield's distinct voice intact and coherent for today’s reader.

Finally, the powerful and passionate preaching that set the world on fire in the Great Awakening is available to all in this two-volume set.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“George Whitefield was undoubtedly one of the greatest preachers of the modern Christian era, yet today he remains strangely neglected, even among evangelical Christians. Lee Gatiss’s excellent edition of Whitefield’s sermons will alleviate some of this undeserved obscurity. Pastors, professors, and laypeople would all do well to reflect on these sermons, which more than any other earthly force helped stir the massive revivals of the Great Awakening.”
—Thomas S. Kidd, Associate Professor of History, Baylor University; author, The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America

“Lee Gatiss has done us a service—dusting off, tidying up, and re-presenting Whitefield’s electric preaching to a new age. Gatiss’s introduction to the sermons is worth the price of the volumes alone. My prayer is that these sermons will raise up, and stir up, a generation to preach with gospel fire. Amen and Amen.”
—Josh Moody, Senior Pastor, College Church, Wheaton, Illinois; author, The God-Centered Life: Insights from Jonathan Edwards

“George Whitefield has impacted my life and ministry more than I could ever measure. I could not be more excited about these sermons being back in print. One can only pray that the same Lord who used these sermons to shake the world so long ago will give us another Great Awakening through them. Whitefield’s own prayer for these sermons would surely accord with what he said when he gave the leadership of the Methodist movement to Wesley, 'Let the name of Whitefield perish, if only the name of Christ be glorified.’”
—Jason C. Meyer, Associate Pastor for Preaching and Vision, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota

“I have read some comments on the printed sermons of Whitefield that say these sermons don't translate well to the written medium. Well, I am sure it would have been amazing to hear him preach; but, given that, I find the written sermons to have an intrinsic fervor, power, clarity, and theological pungency that still leaps off the page into the conscience and affections in a gripping and edifying way. This publication is welcome; it will do us good and demonstrates once again that God’s truth transcends all generations and cultures and that God only rarely gives gifts to the church as transparently good as George Whitefield. Thanks to Lee Gatiss and thanks to Crossway.”
—Tom J. Nettles, Professor of Historical Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, By His Grace and for His Glory

About the Author

Lee Gatiss is director of Church Society, visiting lecturer in church history at Wales Evangelical School of Theology, and editor of Theologian. He holds degrees in history and theology from Oxford, Oak Hill College, and Westminster Seminary, and is working towards his doctorate from Cambridge, focusing on seventeenth-century biblical interpretation. Gatiss has served churches in Oxford, Kettering, and London. He is married to Kerry and they have three children.

Product Details

• File Size: 1581 KB
• Print Length: 976 pages
• Publisher: Crossway (August 15, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008YGE8PU
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,384 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Relevant Sermons For Every Generation January 13, 2012

By William Keith Mathison

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Georges Whitefield was a major influence during the Revolutionary period so I wanted to read some of his works. The thing that impressed me is that good Biblically based sermons are timeless. Whitefield's sermons are as relevant today as they were then because that is the nature of God's word. Whitefield's sermons are deep and scholarly. It is good to know America's Founding Fathers were influenced by such solid Biblical instruction. Pastors during the Founding years wrote down lengthy sermons for the benefit of their congregations and future generations. Their sermons were more then the single point diminutive sermons people get today. The were full of meaning and Biblical principles. Whitefield must have been up day and night painstakingly preparing weekly sermons. How much time do pastors take today to study to show they are approved with Biblical sermons prepared with great care and research, to make sure the flock is getting the meat of the Word instead of the milk? We can learn from the things that were done right in History and George Whitefield is a good role model for pastors. This is a good book for all to read, for your kids to read and a keepsake for future generations to read because the content is rich and never gets old.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE "GIANT" WHO IS NEGLECTED TO OUR GREAT LOSS January 15, 2013

By STEVE MARTIN

Format:Hardcover

THE "GIANT" WHO IS NEGLECTED TO OUR GREAT LOSS
01/14/2013

He was the hero of Charles Spurgeon, arguably the greatest preacher in English in the 19th century. He was the hero of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, arguably the greatest preacher in the English language of the 20th century. J. C. Ryle called him the first man among the great men who made up the Evangelical Awakening (called the "Great Awakening" in the U.S.) in the 18th century. Who are we talking about--George Whitefield.

First to do field preaching and in the streets, zealous evangelical, Calvinist, Anglican, indefatigable in his labors--preaching over 38,000 sermons in his lifetime. Considered by many to be the greatest Christian preacher of all time. He would be heard by more than 40,000 people at a time. Benjamin Franklin regularly heard him preach and walking as far back in a crowd as he could and still hear Whitefield clearly, then walking to each side and then doing the geometry to figure out the square feet and then figuring out how many square feet each person needed in their comfort zone, Franklin's calculation was that 25,000+ could hear Whitefield clearly and easily!

Let me tell you my own Whitefield story! I left ten years of parachurch student ministry to go to seminary after a call to the gospel ministry and internship at a church. I was 31, married with two small children and I needed to work part time to augment my church's scholarship. Unknown to many, including me at the time, seminary can be a daunting place. It can be Christian graduate school or graduate school with Christian content. In graduate school, one is graded for one's ability to master the subjects, not in mastering life. The Bible became a dry book full of "pericopes". Names and dates and esoteric facts became "real" and the "real world" faded into the background. (From talking to other students then and since, I have come to see that my experience was not
unique.)

Three choices grounded me in reality. The first was my involvement in my local church in seminary. We attended faithfully, worked in the nursery and I even became a church officer during my matriculation at seminary. The second and third choices were that I would read two books which would keep me sane. I chose John Owen's Volume Six of his complete works, TEMPTATION AND SIN and Volume One of Arnold Dallimore's magisterial GEORGE WHITEFIELD (The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival); Crossway.

Owen of course laid my heart open and showed me my sins, how they operated and how to deal with them. I shall never be able to thank him enough. He made me a realist about my sin and showed me in a manly way how to face up to and fight my sin's by God's appointed means. I cherish my original annotated volume and its underlinings in red.

But Arnold Dallimore's life of George Whitefield showed me my heart in another way. George Whitefield knew God in ways that I only dreamed of. We parachurch workers were the "Special Forces" of evangelicalism, the "force recon" men of the Marines, the Navy Seals of God's advancing forces. Or so we thought. The churches were filled with the flotsam of Christ's kingdom. Local pastors were nice men who could not cut it in the rough and tumble world of evangelism. God was showing me that the local church was His primary means of grace to accomplish His Kingdom purposes. What struck me in reading Dallimore's life of Whitefield was how humble George Whitefield was and how loving. He could be brash and overly zealous as a young man but as he continued to grow, he became a man I could only hope to emulate in small ways. Yes he was given tremendous power to preach. Yes, he saw tens of thousands of real converts, decision who became lifelong disciples. But God made him a humble man, a Christ-loving man, very loving man. I have read the two volume set twice and both times I came away deeply affected, praying "Lord, make me into a man of God; make me humble and loving like George Whitefield. And Lord, be pleased to use me for the conversion of the lost all around me."

As a young Calvinist who knew no other Calvinists who were alive (one man told me all the people like me had died already and were in church history books!), I wondered how my new Calvinism related to evangelism. I knew the scare stories that those who believed in the doctrines of grace were against evangelism and missions. But my knowledge of church history told me otherwise. Wasn't William Carey, the father of the modern missionary movement a Calvinistic Baptist? And weren't George Whitefiled and Jonathan Edwards ardent evangelistic preachers and warm hearted Calvinists? Little did I realize what I would be in for in reading Dallimore's life of Whitefield.
As a parachurch worker engaged in full-time evangelism, I knew something of spiritual power. I had tasted the power of God in witnessing and preaching. But I was not prepared for the authentic power of God I saw in the life and preaching of George Whitefield. I was humbled to the ground. I knew nothing of God's power like this man knew God's power. I never saw one day like the thousands of days George Whitefield saw being used by God.

Preachers, if you have not read Dallimore's two volume life of Whitefield, ask your Elders or Deacons to buy the church a set and read it first. Laymen, buy your pastor a set and encourage him to prayerfully read it. He was that great a man and Dallimore's account will not be bettered any time soon.

And when you are through with the big biography, buy and read Lee Gatiss' 2 volumes, THE SERMONS OF GEORGE WHITEFIELD; Crossway. They are the perfect compliment to the Dallimore biography. Professor Gatiss has done a great service to Christ's church by taking the standard set of Whitefield's sermons approved in his lifetime, and introducing them and footnoting them and helping us to see what we are seeing and reading. The sermons are put in context theologically and according to the 18th century Christian ethos. The Introduction is outstanding and helpful really introducing Whitefield life and labors and showing us his strength and weaknesses. What a year it would make for any minister, just beginning or having already preached for many years, to prayerfully read through the 2 volume biography AND the 2 volume edited sermons! What a wealth of good things!

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic revival sermons from a master January 28, 2013

By Fred Bawana

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Truths from the Bible do not expire. Whitefield proved he mastered these truths with his simple, straight forward,logical , down to earth explanation of these truths. The masses flocked to hear him and we are blessed to still be able to hear him though these books. The out dated English vocabulary and spelling can slow down your comprehension.