Introduction to Dr. Lloyd-Jones

In The Calvin Forum in February, 1943 Dr. Clarence Bouma, the editor, called attention to a little book, The Plight of Man and the Power of God. He hailed it as “a gem of 120 pages” which “ought to be on the desk of every preacher in the English-speaking world. And it ought to be read by many who are not preachers.” “Here is the unadulterated, God–centered faith of the epistle to the Romans made simple, clear, living, real, ‘down-to-date.’ The sin of man and the wrath of God etched in sharp biblical lines, and all of it overarched by the Gospel of the grace of the same sovereign God-the power of God unto salvation.” “Read, re–read, and digest this little book. You may ‘discover’ the epistle to the Romans, even if you have been a preacher for some years. Here is t he Reformed Faith thrown against the dark background of the sin and deviltry of man. How this gospel both exalts and humbles! Read this living re–interpretation of the eternal gospel from the pen of a Welsh Calvinist, preaching every Sunday in a British pulpit, and now published by an American publishing house.

My curiosity and interest aroused by that kind of praise, I ordered the book. Dr. Bouma’s recommendation did not exaggerate. It was not a commentary on the Letter to the Romans, but only an introduction to its first chapter. Of t he book’s five chapters four diagnosed the “plight of man” (Dr. Lloyd–Jones was a physician before he became a preacher!), and only the last dealt with the remedy, “the power of God.” That little book, just as Dr. Bouma had suggested, led me to turn to the Letter to the Romans with a new interest. The result was study and a series of about a dozen sermons during the last half of 1944, working through Paul’s letter. When shortly thereafter I entered the U.S. Navy as a chaplain and had to work among the endlessly varied groups of sailors who represented the variety of people who make our melting-pot of nations, the study of the Book of Romans, the most extensive and systematic introduction to Christian doctrine given us in the Bible, became the subject matter for several of the most interesting Bible classes I have ever been privileged to lead. As I look back over the years I see the little book of Lloyd–Jones, in the providence of God, having an incalculable amount of influence on my thinking, life and labor as a minister of the gospel.

In his simple and direct, unassuming style and excellent English, in his deep personal commitment to the unchanging, revealed Gospel of God, in his keen sense of the needs of man and of the temper and character of our times as he seeks to systematically present and apply the Gospel, Dr. Lloyd-Jones in his writings has taught me and a multitude of others a great deal about preaching the gospel. For a number of years I subscribed to his Westminster Record which each month circulated another of Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ sermons in the series which he had been preaching. (Subsequently his sermons were published as series of books, earlier by Eerdmans, later by Zondervan and Baker.) I found them invigorating for personal faith and helpful in exposition and applying the Bible in preaching.

   

Christianity Today’s Interview

In its February 8, 1980 issue Christianity Today directed the spotlight of the evangelical world at the career of this little Welsh preacher, now in his 80th year, with his portrait on its front cover and an introductory editorial entitled, “Martyn Lloyd Jones: For Whom Proclamation Was Paramount.” It pointed out that his remarkable, unique, three-decade ministry in central London had been based on the conviction that preaching the gospel was “the highest and greatest and most glorious calling.” Because of this conviction he opposed “choirs and song-leaders, church processions and liturgical embellishments, public testimonies and responsive readings, pulpit entertainers and literary lecturers” as taking time or attention away from reading or preaching the Word of God. This was not self-exaltation for “he would not cross the road to hear himself preach, and seldom referred to himself in sermons.” He did not emphasize personal work or counseling, “holding that such activity goes up when preaching goes down,” although he has done a great deal of such work in his career. While he has broad evangelical sympathies he firmly opposes any denominational unity with those who deny the deity of Christ and other cardinal doctrines. (In his little Inter-Varsity pamphlet, “The Basis of Christian Unity” he advocated preaching the gospel to liberals but not with them.)

The leading article in the Christianity Today issue was a report on an interview by Carl Henry entitled, “Martyn Lloyd-Jones: From Buckingham to Westminster.” It traced his career from the time when at the age of 27 as a brilliant young doctor, he felt called to the ministry and without formal theological training became pastor of a small Presbyterian congregation in South Wales and began expository preaching (simply explaining and applying the Bible). During the next 11 ¹/2 years in this mining and industrial district his church grew from 93 to 530 members and attendance at church services r eached about 850. In 1938 he was invited to become the associate of G. Campbell Morgan at London’s Westminster Chapel where he became the sole minister in 1943. The war which led people to flee from London and blew off half of the chapel roof drastically reduced the size of the once large congregation, but by war’s end attendance had again grown to about 500. In 1951 attendance had increased so t hat at times 2,500 people crowded the auditorium. Dr. Lloyd–Jones preached 45-minute sermons Sunday mornings and hour–long expositions at night. Although he saw many conversions he did not favor organized mass–evangelism and was, he thought, the only minister of a major church in London who did not cooperate in the Billy Graham crusades. He felt that real revival must be the work of the Holy Spirit and was “unhappy about organized campaigns and even more about the invitation system of calling people forward.” He objected too to “having liberals and Roman Catholics on the platform” in such crusades. He feared this trusting “in techniques rather than in the power of the Spirit.” He also shied away from the charismatic Keswick conferences with their unscriptural views of sanctification. Genuine evangelicalism needs both an emphasis on the intellectual and on the heart. For him a “key verse” came to be Romans 6:17, “Ye have obeyed from the heart the form of sound words delivered unto you.” (Actually in this quotation the “form of sound words” comes from 2 Tim. 1:13!) He saw the main problem in evangelical circles as “confusion”; “concessions have been made to so–called scholarship, and there has been a slide toward a liberal view of the Scriptures and of particular doctrines” as “prominent evangelicals . . . quietly and subtly crossed the line by concessions to higher criticism. At stake is the loss of a doctrine of the full inspiration and inerrance of Scripture.” Compromised churches have “an identity crisis” when many “leaders and teachers of students disown basic Christian doctrines. For dedicated evangelicals to labor in such circles ultimately suggests that these truths do not matter.” He believes “evangelicals should combine forces—not to form a new denomination, but for fellowship and cooperation. Such mutual strengthening is the hop eful way into the future.” Although he has a great sense of humor, he feels that in the pulpit “in the terrible position of standing between God and souls that may not go to hell” one is in a “position . . . too appalling for humor.”

Asked about his views of Christian responsibility in the current economic situation, he replied that we must preach the message of “God’s judgment on men and the world.” Because man is a sinner, any human contrivance is doomed to fail; the only hope for the world is the return of Christ-nothing else. Asked whether we should not “press the claims of Christ in all the arenas of society,” Dr. Lloyd–Jones emphatically disagreed. “You can’t reform the world. That’s why I disagree entirely with the ‘social and cultural mandate’ teaching and its appeal to Genesis 1:28. It seems to me to forget completely the Fall.” “The end time is going to be like the time of the Flood.” “I believe the Christian people—but not the church should get involved in politics and in social affairs. The kingdom task of the church is to save me n from the wrath to come by bringing them to Christ.” “The main function of politics, culture, and all these things is to restrain evil. They can never do an ultimately positive work.” “You can never Christianize the world.” When “all civilization is rocking and we are facing collapse, morally, politically and in every other way … our urgent message should be, “Flee from the wrath to come.” Although he encouraged his son–in–law to labor in the European Parliament, he was convinced that to say “this is the Christian political view” was “the mistake of Abraham Kuyper.” Kuyper placed himself in a compromise position: “a Christian minister becoming prime minister and then needing to form a coalition with Roman Catholics and claiming Christian sanction for specific political positions.” In the current collapse of civilization our message should be “Flee from the wrath to come” and “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

An Evaluation

There is abundant reason for thanksgiving to God for the remarkable career of Dr. Lloyd-Jones and the enormous influence that he has had in Great Britain and throughout the world. His single–minded practice and promotion of expository preaching has had an incalculable influence on evangelical churches and ministers in our time and, as I have already indicated, I am sure that any gospel minister could profit greatly by studying his sermons.

As we as Bible–believing Reformed Christians seek to appreciate and profit by the massive work of Dr. Lloyd-Jones, can we see weaknesses in it which ought not to be imitated? I believe that there are several.

1. Even his expository method of preaching concentrating over a long period of time on one or two books (twelve volumes of sermons on Romans and eight on Ephesians in print or being printed), powerful and helpful as it is, has an obverse side. Some years ago when I was reading month by month the Westminster Record, each containing one printed sermon, Dr. Lloyd-Jones began preaching on Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” That month-by-month series on the “wiles of the devil” expanded until, as I recall, there were about 50 individual sermons in it! Even at that I’m sure that the preacher did not exhaust the number of tricks which the devil uses to oppose the Lord and His gospel, but the question can hardly help but arise whether the Christian and church are best built up by such a prolonged and heavy concentration on that important subject. We in our Reformed tradition have one practice and rule (though it is increasingly criticized and neglected) t hat is designed to save the church from being so largely at the mercy of a minister’s hobbies. That is “catechism preaching.” At a little conference some years ago one of the Reformed Baptists (the group that has been especially influenced by Dr. Lloyd-Jones work) was speaking. In the open discussion this matter of catechism preaching was brought up –and the speaker’s reaction was that he could never put up with such a “straight–jacket.” As a matter of fact it has been this “strait-jacket” that has often, I am sure, been far more helpful both to ministers and churches than many realize in holding before them the constant ideal of preaching and teaching “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). The famous British preacher and his many followers have lacked that kind of discipline and I believe their work, splendid as it is, might have been even richer if they had had it.

2. Looking at his work from our perspective, we are compelled also to recognize in its imbalance a lack of appreciation and emphasis on the Biblical teaching of God’s covenant and its implications for the Christian home and family. Although Dr. Lloyd-Jones is a Presbyterian he has gained an especially large following among the Baptists many of whom are developing a real enthusiasm for Calvinistic doctrines. An article in the April 4, 1980 Christianity Today entitled, “Britons Wed Baptist Ecclesiology with Reformed Theology,” calls attention to this development, highlighting especially the influence of Lloyd–Jones as a leader in it. We read that though he is a Congregationalist “the Doctor only baptized believers at Westminster Chapel and they by affusion,” and he paved the way for the Chapel to call as his successor a Southern Baptist. It is not surprising that in this kind of atmosphere the reader will miss much appreciation of or emphasis on the Biblical “The promise is to you and to your children” (Acts 2:39), not as. a substitute for personal faith, but as an incentive to seek it. 3. In the January 19, 1980 Standard Hearer, (periodical of the Protestant Reformed Churches) Prof. H. Hanko reviewed Dr. Lloyd–Jones’ Commentary on Ephesians 1. While warmly appreciative of many of the virtues of this work he had to call attention to the faulty treatment of verses 4 and 5, its sketchiness in dealing with the doctrine of God’s election and even refusal to make a choice between the explanation that God chose us “in spite of ourselves” and the view that He chose only because “he has foreseen that we would exercise faith.” To hedge at this point is hardly doing justice to the Bible’s claims about the sovereignty of God who “worketh all things after the counsel of His will.”

4. I cannot escape the conviction that in the Doctor’s intense preoccupation with the evangelistic call to “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” he does less than justice to the other ingredient in the “great commission”; the injunction to teach men to observe all things which the Lord commanded His converts (Mt. 28:20). The Apostle Paul indeed stressed “to all” “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,” but that preaching as He did it included “the whole counsel of God” and everything that was “profitable” to Christians (Acts 20:20, 21, 27). See how the latter parts of his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians emphasize the social implications of the Gospel for the Christian’s life in the world. We can understand and share the doctor’s reaction to the liberal error of substituting the “social gospel” for the real gospel, and the tragic “derailment” of Abraham Kuyper’s multifaceted program to recognize Christ as King in every area of life is becoming only too evident to almost everyone in our day; but the errors of others who have betrayed the gospel in their zeal for a secularized “Kingdom” which disobeys the Word of the King, should not mislead us, out of reaction to ignore the Lord’s claims on every area of life.

One misses the Biblical injunction that every Christian’s role in life is to be acknowledged as a God–given calling or “vocation” (1 Cor. 7:20–24), as “sacred” in its way as the pastor’s call to the gospel ministry. “Let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God.” It seems to me that these writings do considerably less than justice to this part of the Christian’s responsibilities. I remember how startled I was when I first read in his superb treatment of the Sermon on the Mount (Vol. 1, pp. 155, 156) the suggestion that the Church beware of denouncing communism because that would inhibit it in its opportunity to witness to the communist as though God’s commandments “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not covet” had nothing to say regarding the rightness or wrongness of communist economic doctrine! I agree that the church should not be diverted into making its preaching an “anti-communist crusade,” and that the Christian’s duty as a citizen is something quite different from the Churches’ official involvement in political organizations, but it seems that the Doctor’s vision at this point is not as clear as it is at many others and is failing to adequately recognize the light which the gospel sheds on our duties in the world.

What is the conclusion? Let’s rejoice in and make abundant use of the works of Dr. Lloyd-Jones who is undoubtedly one of the greatest gospel preachers in our time. But let’s also be alert to some of the weaknesses in his massive work. The Lord has given us an infallible Bible; but he has not given us any infallible preachers. Like the Bereans we all need to “search the scriptures” and learn from His servants who help us do that.