The Wood's Secret Garden

Many readers will be interested to learn that Dr. Lloyd-Jones preached evangelistic sermons from the Old Testament. This was as unusual in his day as were his doctrinal sermons. Murray notes that ML-J is often thought of today as a teaching preacher, but his wife, Bethan Lloyd-Jones, considered her husband to be first and foremost an evangelist (55). This contemporary misapprehension may simply be due to the sermons that have been published as over against those which have not been released to the public in print. The assumption of publishers was that Christians would make up the lion's share of his readers, so the sermons that went to press were ones that it was thought were more geared to believers already in the way. But Murray points out that in reality, "more than half" of Lloyd-Jones' preaching was evangelistic. As already noted, the "Doctor" often used Old Testament texts in his evangelistic sermons and this was because he saw the "neglect a...

We are all somewhat guilty of this, are we not? What a danger it is to 1) not be aware of it; and, 2) not heed this warning when we approach the Word of God: There can be no doubt at all that the commonest cause [of misinterpreting the Bible] is our tendency to approach the Bible with a theory. We go to our Bibles with this theory, and everything we read is controlled by it ... There is a sense in which it is true to say that you can prove anything you like from the Bible. That is how heresies have arisen. The heretics were never dishonest men; they were mistaken men ... they have been some of the most sincere men that the Church has ever known. What was the matter with them? Their trouble was this; they evolved a theory and they were rather pleased with it; then they went back with this theory to the Bible, and they seemed to find it everywhere ... There is nothing so dangerous as to come to the Bible with a theory, with preconceived ideas, with some pet idea of our own ... Now t...

This is an excerpt from an address given by Lloyd-Jones on the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Williams (a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist). I encourage all to read the full address. The link is posted at the end of this excerpt. My argument is, that cold, sad, mournful, depressing Calvinism is not Calvinism at all. It is a caricature; something has gone wrong somewhere. It is mere intellectualism and philosophy. Calvinism leads to feeling, to passion, to warmth, to praise, to thanksgiving. Look at Paul, the greatest of them all. We should not talk about 'Calvinism'; it is Paul's teaching. He tells us that he wept. He preached with tears. Do you? When did we last weep over these matters? When did we last shed tears? When have we shown the feeling and the passion that he shows? Paul could not control himself, he got carried away. Look at his mighty climaxes; look at the way in which he rises to the heavens and is 'lost in wonder, tore, and praise'. Of course...

I think, at times, we can forget that there was a time we would have actually chocked had someone fed us meat. I think, at times, we try to force feed babes in Christ when they are not ready (or able) to chew, swallow and digest some of the deeper things of God. I think, at times, we say, "What is wrong with you - this is good for you - now eat it" when they truly are not ready. The result of such well meaning effort, is usually not what we had hoped for-- they either refuse to take a bite; or, taste it, chew on it, and then spit it out; or, chew on it, and swallow it only to get a stomach ache from it. While pondering this, I received this quote in my morning email devotionals. Lord humble us and remind us that we are all in different stages of spiritual maturity. Give us all more patience with those "babes" regardless of how old they may be physically. “Dr Lloyd-Jones certainly did not believe that discussion of the doctrines of grace should be carried on i...

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was, by any fair measure, one of the greatest preachers of the twentieth century. His ministry at Westminster Chapel in London ranks among the most influential in Christian history. "The Doctor," as he was known, was a master expositor and a most effective communicator . He was also firmly grounded in historic Christian orthodoxy, with a clear commitment to Reformation doctrine and a deep concern for the vitality and integrity of evangelical Christianity . Now, more than a quarter-century after his death, fifty-six previously unpublished sermons on John 4. The sermons, preached in 1967 and 1968, represent Lloyd-Jones at his best. Living Water: Studies in John 4 [ Crossway ] is a gift to us today. Excerpt from Al Mohler's Blog May 2009 A few excerpts from the book: This is Christianity : The Lord appears! Suddenly, in the midst if the drudgery and the routine and the sameness and the dullness and the drabness, unexpectedly , surprisingly , He m...