Category: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

You see, any man who thinks that he can examine God, and having done so, dismiss Him, is just saying that he is a fool.  May I put that to you in the form of an illustration.  You will hear people, saying, sometimes, that they just see nothing in Beethoven’s music, but they think jazz is marvelous.  Now in saying that, they tell me nothing about Beethoven, but they do tell me a great deal about themselves!  They do not realize it of course; they think they are being clever.  But they are really just telling us all about themselves from the standpoint of a knowledge of music. – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, p. 388

There are some people who seem to regard faith as the opposite of works.  Now that, in itself, is not right, because the opposite of works is not faith.  The opposite of works is the righteousness of God.  That is what the Apostle is contrasting – men who try to save themselves by works, and this other salvation, which is the giving to us of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  …So you see, the opposite of works is not faith.  No! it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is the opposite of works, and it is righteousness which comes to us through faith.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, p. 311

A friend of mine who used to attend here regularly and who has now gone to glory – a very good man – once said to me, rather jocularly but very kindly – “You know, I sometimes think that the Apostle Paul must be amazed when he sees what you get out of his epistles!”  Poor man!  By now my friend has discovered that the Apostle Paul is amazed how little that most people, and I with them, get out of his great epistles.  – D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Romans Vol. 1, p. 227

For reference as to how much The Doctor got out of Paul’s epistles this comes from a Sermon on Romans 9:10-11, his seventeenth sermon out of Romans at that point.

We do not become the beloved because of anything that we do.  We are what we are because he first loved us.  It is His love that initiates the movement that brings us out of that terrible plight and predicament in which we are all are as the result of sin.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, Pg. 159

If you work your way through the Old Testament, this is what you will find.  There were dead, lifeless periods when you would think that everything had come to an end – that God’s ways were forgotten.  How did these dead periods suddenly give way to something else?  Was it that people got together and organized something?  Never!  Not on a single occasion!  Invariably it happened like this: that when they were utterly hopeless, and downcast, and really thought the end had come, God suddenly, unexpectedly, and in the most amazing manner did something.  It is God who revives His work.  You and I tend to be anxious, over-anxious, about the work, don’t we?  Like that poor man Uzzah, we put out our hand to steady the ark, forgetting that he was struck dead for attempting to do so.  And there are many people today who seem to think that they must do something to safeguard God’s cause.  My dear friend, you need not trouble; God revives His work, but in His time, in His way, and with the person or persons whom He has chosen.  The Old Testament history is amazing in that respect.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Vol. 1, p.96

An inadequate understanding of our sinfulness is probably the greatest single cause of our failure to rejoice always in the Lord always, and to realize that this message is the greatest good news the world has ever received. …The positive road to joy is always via the depth of sin. …It ought to be impossible for us to use the word ‘gospel’ without bursting forth, as it were, into a hymn of praise and thanksgiving.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, pp. 58, 59

I am one of those who do not recognize any consideration of the Word of God which is not accompanied by worship.  The Bible is not an ordinary book – it is God’s book, and it is a Book about God and man’s realtionship to Him.  Therefore, every time we consider or study the Bible we are, of necessity, worshipping.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, p. 1

Many of you know that each year I devote time to the study of one man’s life and theology.  This year I have decided to spend a year being taught by the man many affectionately call “The Doctor”, Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  My first direct exposure to Lloyd-Jones was through his book Spiritual Depression.  The logic was life changing, the seriousness contagious, and the solemn holiness that is attested to have permeated the atmosphere in which he preached could still be sensed.  It is paragraphs like this that will leave me eternally thankful to God for His teaching:

How do we reconcile the two things? In this way. I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. this is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this [the man in Ps. 42]; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you’….The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.

The second book of Lloyd-Jones and one of the most practically life changing was Preaching and Preachers.  After reading this book the driving emphasis behind my ministry, my schedule, use of time, and study habits radically changed and I am all the better for it.  I believe these changes have brought about much fruit; I think that God has blessed my ministry in a way that was absent before.

Next year I hope to read through his set of expository sermons on the book of Romans (14 volumes), his large book, the Great Doctrines of the Bible, and Revival.  In addition I plan to reread Spiritual Depression, Preaching and Preachers, and The Cross as well as skim back through Studies in the Sermon on the Mount and Life in Christ.  As far as biographies I will reread Iain Murray’s wonderful two volume work, as well as reading his new work Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace.  Unlike years past I plan on beginning each week by sharing with you some of the gems gleaned from my study the previous week.  All these posts will be prefaced, “The Doctor:”.

I invite you join me by reading any of the titles listed above, especially Spiritual Depression and Preaching and Preachers.  Also the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recording Trust has free sermon audio, books, articles, and an mp3 podcast.