I like to use stuff as much as I can. Back in March this blog appeared
here.
A significant anniversary has quietly slipped by recently. March 1 saw the passing of the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It is right to take a moment to remind ourselves, if we know, what an impact his ministry had, under God, and to alert a rising generation to his stature and importance.
I am of that generation that came immediately after the one that knew the full impact of his ministry. All my life I have heard him lionized (and sometimes criticized) but never met him personally.
I became aware of him shortly after being converted as a young teenager in Wales. It seemed that a sermon rarely got preached in those days without the minister mentioning him or Spurgeon or sometimes both. Spurgeon, I discovered, was one of those notorious dead guys but Lloyd-Jones was alive and kicking, living somewhere in London and still often about in our part of the world.
I recall at least two occasions when trips were organized to hear the man himself. Not used to the idea of a preacher so popular that late arrival could mean no seat, both times I turned up late at my minister’s house only to find he and the others long gone.
I got hold of some tapes but only actually heard the man himself once. It was on Wednesday, May 14, 1980 - the last time he ever preached in Wales. I know the date because I still have the bilingual poster announcing that he would preach in the afternoon in Welsh and in the evening in English. Not having Welsh, I only went in the evening. He preached from Acts 2. It was a grand occasion and I well remember seeing the elderly and slightly feeble figure of Lloyd-Jones in his dark overcoat stepping up to pulpit lectern to preach in his own unique way. My wife, six years my junior, was only 12 at the time. When her preacher father asked her what she thought of it, she said it was “just like Sunday mornings only simpler”!
Under a year later he was in the immediate presence of his Lord. Having come to appreciate the importance of this great man of God I made sure that I made the trip with my minister to Newcastle Emlyn for the funeral. I had never been present on such an occasion before and hardly ever since. There must have been as many as a hundred preachers there, many of them familiar to me, men who had made the journey to pay their last respects in that out-of-the-way place to the man they always referred to as “the doctor.” I had never seen anyone at a funeral with a camera before but Iain Murray probably made the right decision to take one along. I well remember being at the graveside and singing God’s praise under an open sky, aware that we were saying goodbye to a great man of God.
The writings of Lloyd-Jones had begun to appear and have continued to come out since. In due time Iain Murray’s two-volume biography appeared. The more I discovered about Lloyd-Jones the more amazed I was. Of course, one was aware of legitimate criticisms that were being made regarding the Doctor’s stance on some doctrinal and practical issues. Sometimes his eagerness for experiential Calvinism perhaps betrayed him into unwise statements and actions. However, he was a man who walked with God and one who was greatly used in his service and we may not see his like for generations to come.
We could all benefit from a perusal of the biography and of at least some of his writings. Perhaps his Preaching and Preachers is a good place to start or Knowing the times, a collection of addresses. His Faith on trial on Psalm 73 is a wonderful little book as is his sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount. Check them out. They will do your soul good.
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Some additional resources by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones include the following:
The Cross
Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace
Faith on Trial
The All Sufficient God: Sermons on Isaiah 40
Raising Children God’s Way
The Plight of Man and the Power of God
