As so often happens in regions where true
revival takes place, the Holy Spirit rushed into turn-of-the-century Wales like
a great tide. Men filled with the Holy Spirit cast out nets of the gospel call and
many were caught up and brought into the Kingdom of God.
Less than three decades into the 20th century, the tide ebbed, false
converts faded away and the true followers of Christ were left with few
shepherds to teach them and to counter the rising trend of liberalism that was
creeping into the national churches of Britain. Throughout this time, God was
preparing a young man to rise to his Master’s call and feed His sheep. The impact
of the ministry that began in small town South Wales and moved to London, England
is still, to this day, being felt and cherished by pastors and parishioners the
world over.
Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born to
blue collar parents in South Wales in 1899. He
was one of three brothers, all raised in the Christian faith of Welsh Calvinist
Methodism, that may well be described as a "head full of sound doctrine and a
Spirit-filled heart of compassion for the lost." All the brothers were
intelligent and enjoyed intellectual debates of reason, logic, doctrine and
faith, but each chose to pursue careers in the secular world upon graduating
college.
“Martyn's career was medicine. He went
from school to St. Bart's, one of the great London teaching hospitals, and was
brilliantly successful. He succeeded in his exams so young that he had to wait
to take his MD, by which time he was already chief clinical assistant to Sir
Thomas Horder, one of the best and most famous doctors of the day. By the age
of 26 he also had his MRCP and was well up the rungs of the Harley Street ladder, with a brilliant
and lucrative career in front of him.”[1]
About this time, God began stirring
unrest inside "the Doctor." “Slowly, reading for himself, his mind was gripped by
the Christian gospel, its compelling power and its balanced logic, like the
majestic self-supporting arches of a great cathedral. He had no dramatic crisis
of conversion, but there came a point when he had committed himself entirely to
the Christian gospel. After that, as he sat in the consulting room, listening
to the symptoms of those who came to see him, he realized that what so many of
his patients needed was not ordinary medicine, but the gospel he had discovered
for himself. He could deal with the symptoms, but the worry, the tension; the
obsessions could only be dealt with by the power of Christian conversion.
Increasingly he felt that the best way to use his life and talents was to
preach that gospel.” [2]
Dr. Lloyd-Jones began to preach the gospel in South Wales while continuing to practice medicine. The
Doctor preached an uncompromising message of divine truth and Biblical
doctrine. His preaching found a welcome reception among the working class of Wales
and Jones’ heart was with his people there. Given his love for his home
country, his next major ministry decision was one of his most difficult.
The pre-eminent evangelical preacher in
English speaking Europe was G. Campbell Morgan at Westminster Chapel in London, England.
After hearing Lloyd-Jones preach, Morgan decided he would like Jones to come on
at Westminster
to serve with and ultimately succeed him in the pastorate there. For Dr. Jones,
there was another offer also on the table in 1938. He had an opportunity to be
the principal at the Theological College at Bala in Wales. Here he would have the
opportunity to train up ministers for the gospel in his beloved hometown. But
the call to Westminster and London was too strong and he moved with his
wife Bethan and two daughters, Elizabeth and Ann in 1939.
"The most urgent need in the
Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the
most urgent need in the Church, it is the greatest need of the world also." ~Dr. David
Martyn Lloyd-Jones (MLJ)
Lloyd-Jones followed in the town and
tradition of Charles H. Spurgeon, but each preacher had his differences. Both
men adhered to the same doctrines, but Jones’ approach to preaching differed
from Spurgeon in that he believed in preaching steadily and consecutively through
whole books of the Bible. Lloyd-Jones would preach in a style that has been
labeled “logic on fire”. The doctor would take a passage, a verse or even part
of a verse and surgically dissect it to explore the meaning of the text, how
the text fit in with other portions of Scripture and how the text applies to life between the secular and Christian worldviews, but also the
different views on particular doctrines held within the Christian community.
“I
have never heard such preaching…it came to me with the force of electric shock,
bringing to at least one of his hearers, more of a sense of God than any other
man….”
~J.I. Packer on MLJ
Shortly after WWII, Lloyd Jones
began a series of lectures on the doctrines of God, focusing on and teaching
from Scripture alone. He taught in a systematic
fashion through the doctrines of God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the church
and the last things. The lectures began as a Friday night meeting in one of the
halls in Westminster Chapel in London,
but quickly grew in size and popularity and needed to be moved into the main
Chapel.
“Like
Tyndale, he wanted the truth to be in words ‘understanded of the people’ [sic]. Also
he did not want the teaching to remain in the head only, so there is an
application in each lecture to make sure that the heart and will are touched
also. The glory of God was his greatest motive in giving these lectures.” [3]
These lectures took place from 1952-1955
and have since been compiled into a three-volume work entitled Great Doctrines of the Bible. [Note: These volumes
are the current studies for both the Pacific Hope Church Men’s
Discipleship and Home Fellowship Groups.] Dr. Lloyd Jones has become one of
the most trusted and respected theologians for churches the
world over.
Certainly, as history has shown,
a man who holds to Biblical doctrine with a firm and unwavering resolve will
have a ministry marked at some point by controversy. This would be one more
thing that the Doctor would have in common with C.H. Spurgeon.
D.
Martyn spoke out against the liberalism that was creeping into the Church of
England. “Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a strong
believer in evangelical unity. He did not believe that denominational barriers
should separate those who had a true faith in common. And, as the ecumenical
movement gathered impetus and the liberal wing in the churches made greater and
greater concessions to the currents of worldly opinion, he came to believe that
the right answer was for the evangelicals to leave the compromised
denominations and form their own grouping. He had no illusions about the
possible ultimate fate of new church groupings. They might, in their own time,
go astray. But he maintained that each of us had to do the best for our own
generation, regardless of what might come later, and that the ecumenical
movement put those who stood for the long line of truly Christian theology and
practice in an impossible position.”[4]
Jones
believed whole heartedly in the work of the Holy Spirit in all things,
especially the conversion of souls. He publicly spoke out against the
ministries of men like Charles Finney and their ‘evangelistic meetings,’ in
which they stirred emotions for a response to the altar call, and then called
it revival.
“I have always believed that nothing but a
revival—a visitation of the Holy Spirit, in distinction from an evangelistic
campaign—can deal with the situation of the church and of the world”.[5] - MLJ
The
Doctor also turned down requests to speak at Billy Graham crusades. When asked
about this he replied:
“I am unhappy about organized campaigns and
even more about the invitation system of calling people forward. Mark you, I
consider Billy Graham an utterly honest, sincere, and genuine man. He, in fact,
asked me in 1963 to be chairman of the first Congress on Evangelism, then
projected for Rome, not Berlin. I said I'd make a bargain: if he
would stop the general sponsorship of his campaigns—stop having liberals and
Roman Catholics on the platform and drop the invitation system (altar calls)—I
would whole-heartedly support him and chair the congress. We talked for three
hours, but he didn't accept these conditions.
I just can't
subscribe to the idea that either congresses or campaigns really deal with the
situation. The facts, I feel, substantiate my point of view: in spite of all
that has been done in the last 20 or 25 years, the spiritual situation has
deteriorated rather than improved. I am convinced that nothing can avail but
churches and ministers on their knees in total dependence on God. As long as
you go on organizing, people will not fall on their knees and implore God to
come and heal them. It seems to me that the campaign approach trusts ultimately
in techniques rather in the power of the Spirit. Graham certainly preaches the
Gospel. I would never criticize him on that score”[6]
Even
within his own church and denomination, he faced controversy. Jones was an
ardent non-cessationist and he believed that the Holy Spirit still worked in
and through the lives of believers in signs and wonders. Dr. Jones preached
this primarily in the context of revival and not so much in isolated events or
people. He preached a number of sermons on this topic near the end of his
ministry in the mid 1960’s. It has been said that he requested that these
sermons not be published until after his death so as not to stir up any more
internal controversy. Lloyd-Jones’ work was published primarily by Banner of
Truth publishing, a company that he had helped establish with his long time
assistant, Iain Murray. (Note to
reader: Banner of Truth is adamantly cessationist in their beliefs and
publications.
D. Martyn has been credited
with the Church’s renewed interest in the Puritan preachers, theologians and
their writings. “Under God, it was the
ministry of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones that helped to create a demand for Puritan
books. He so often referred to Puritan works in his preaching that people asked
him where they could be found. He directed them to the Evangelical Library.
Then he also chaired the Puritan Conference from its beginning in 1950 several
years before the Puritan reprints began to appear. Thus, many people were
longing for them by the time that they were available.”[7]
“Preaching has been my life’s work; to
me, the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious
calling to which anyone can ever be called.” ~ MLJ
“Dr.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a phenomenon in the evangelicalism of Britain in the 20th century. What
accounts for this was not only the powerful effect of his evangelistic
preaching at a time of considerable apathy and spiritual decline. It was not
only the call of a formidable intellect to his Christian and ministerial
contemporaries to think through their evangelical faith to its implication for
church and world - and an example of how to do it. It was not only the call to
reformation and revival, a return to foundational doctrines and a prayerful
hunger for an apostolic experience. What made Dr. Lloyd-Jones the phenomenon he
was on the evangelical scene was the extra-ordinary combination of all these
things.
“He
was a Bible man, but no mere scribe; he had a strong sense of history but he
was also utterly abreast of his time; he was a preacher of eloquence, force and
passion but one who scorned to be a performer. To hear his sermons on tape is
to lose something of the atmosphere of the hour of their delivery, and yet they
create their own atmosphere still. The truths are as forceful as ever, the
message as relevant as ever and the pastoral and evangelistic wisdom is
strengthening as ever.
“This
preaching carries conviction and strengthens conviction. These tapes will
"restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" (I Peter 5:10)
as the God of all peace prepares you for your generation as He prepared Dr.
Lloyd-Jones for his.” [8]
D.
Martyn Lloyd Jones retired from preaching after a major surgery in 1968. He did
make a full recovery from the operation, but decided it was the right time for
him to step down from the pulpit. He had seen too many other men press on long
after they should have retired and he turned his focus to other ministry. For
the next twelve years, he did the bulk of his writing, turning his sermons into
books and that is when he produced one of his most well known and cherished
works, the two-volume exposition of the Sermon on the Mount. During these last
years the Doctor also spent a great deal of time meeting with, encouraging and
mentoring other ministers.
“Towards the end
of February 1981, with great peace and assured hope, he believed that his
earthly work was done. To his immediate family he said: 'Don't pray for
healing, don't try to hold me back from the glory.' On March 1, 1981, St.
David's Day and the Lord's Day, he passed on to the glory on which he had so often
preached to meet the Savior he had so faithfully proclaimed.” [9]
Additional Resources:
D.
Martyn Lloyd Jones: The Fight of Faith by Iain Murray
Preaching
and Preachers
by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones
John Piper’s biographical sermon on MLJ:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1462_A_Passion_for_ChristExalting_Power/
MLJ Recordings Trust
http://www.mlj.org.uk/
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