The Holy Spirit In the Ministry of the Word
by Pastor Bob Burridge ©1990
This is a study paper originally prepared for presentation to a reformed ministers fellowship that met on September 14, 1990, at Northshore Presbyterian Church (PCA) at Pearl and 67th Streets Jacksonville, Florida. It was re-edited in April, 1995 under study-assignment by the Genevan Institute for Reformed Studies.
Section 1. The Power of the Word of God
Truth: eternal, revealed, distorted
Section 2.
The Essentially Attendant Power of the Holy Spirit
1. Moral Inability
2. The work of grace
3. God's ordinary administration of the word by the Spirit
4. God's exrtaordinary administration of the word by the Spirit
Section 3.
Dangers of an Unbalanced View
1. No recognition of the power of the word or of the Spirit
2. Emphasis upon the power of the word without the necessary
work of the Spirit
3. Emphasis upon the power of the Spirit without the
necessary means of the word
4. Recognition of the full interdependence of both the word
and the Spirit
Section 4.
Hope in Ministering the Word and Spirit
Where is the life in our preaching?
Author's Notes:
I regret that this paper was prepared in far too much haste to
do justice to so noble a subject. If in reading you suspect you
have found grammatical, spelling and style errors you are
probably correct! Time was short and I spent more time in the
substance than in the form of this presentation. But if this
rough and imperfect document stirs us to a more diligent use of
God's means and a more confident and expectant resting on the
ministry of the Holy Spirit, then I will be pleased in spite of
any human embarrassment my haste might have earned.
I would like to credit the following sources which I have found
specially helpful in the preparation of this paper. While many
standard theological works and other sources were used, these I
have learned to treasure specially regarding this topic:
The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit
by James Buchanan, 1843
Banner of Truth Trust 1984
The Work of the Holy Spirit
by Abraham Kuyper 1900 Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1969
A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit
by John Owen, 1674
Banner of Truth Trust 1972
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
by C. R. Vaughn, 1894 Banner of
Truth Trust 1975
God has specially revealed Himself to man and preserved that
propositional revelation in his written word. Just as our
fallen nature demands special revelation, so also our fallen
nature demands the work of the Holy Spirit if that propositional
revelation is to be understood. The hearer must be regenerated
and illumined.
This yields great hope and encouragement to all who are called
to the ministration of the word of God. Not only do we possess,
by the gracious providence of God, an objective and inerrant
word, but we also have the promised attendance of the person of
the Holy Spirit to enliven dead hearts and open blinded eyes.
By the power of the Spirit in the ministry of the word we see
lives transformed. We see fallen men who were aliens from God
gathered into the kingdom of Christ. In this ministry of the
Spirit in the word we witness God glorified in the efficacy of
His eternal plan. We are assured that whatsoever he purposed to
do would of certainty be done. In this, we are privileged to
take part!
Charles Hodge in his Systematic Theology (III pg 476) puts this
same truth in these words, "He so gives or withholds the
influence of the Spirit that every minister of the Gospel, as
the Apostles themselves did, should feel and acknowledge that
his success does not depend on his official dignity, or his
fidelity, or his skill in argument, or his power of persuasion,
but simply and solely on the demonstration of the Spirit, given
or withheld as He sees fit. Why was it that so few were
converted under the ministry of Christ, and so many thousands
under the Apostles? ... We know indeed that the Spirit's
sovereignty is determined in its action by infinitely wise and
good reasons"
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