Wednesday 20 July 2011

Lloyd-Jones - The 20th Century Amyraldian

This selection of statements were taken from the Doctor's evangelistic sermons, and might well have been taken straight out of Calvin's sermons, especially those on Isa.53. This is probably not the Lloyd-Jones that you know, but this is the authentic Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the reformed preacher who self-defined as an evangelist. Read these over and see what you think.
“But under this preaching, they were brought low and saw what fools they had been. How blind! How ignorant! How dull! Pitting their little minds against God, crucifying the very Son of God himself, and the Saviour of the world.”
“The world denies him – denies him as the Son of God, denies him as the Lamb of God, denies him as the Saviour who shed his blood that the world might be forgiven.”
“Men delivered him up to death, but the message of the gospel is that God delivered him up to death, for us all.”
“The world has rejected him because it had despised him. It had said, ‘Is it possible that the Saviour of the world can be just a carpenter, especially one who comes out of a place called Nazareth?’”
“The despised one is the Lord of glory and the Saviour of the world.”
“He is the Saviour of the world, Jn.4:42.”
“As you look at the world, as you look at your own life, as you look at history, as you read his word, are you still ignorant – of God, of your immortal soul, and, in between, of God’s own Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of the world.”
“Do you realise that you killed the Prince of life, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world?"
“He, in and of himself, and alone, is the Saviour of the world.”
“Say, ‘Yes, he is then only one, he is the Saviour of the world, and he is my Saviour.’”
“It is God who sent his Son into the world, it is God who sent him to the cross, it is God who ‘laid on him the iniquities of us all,’ Isa.53:6. It is God who has taken your sins and put them on him and punished them in him and is offering you a free pardon; it is God who has done it.”
This is a small selection of quotations from Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones taken from his evangelistic sermons and which are spread over his at least four decades of Christian ministry. The Christian public ought to be grateful to the Banner of Truth Trust in Edinburgh for making this material widely available.
The impression has been given that Lloyd-Jones believed in the doctrine of 'limited atonement,' propounded by Beza and Owen. Neither he, nor his dear wife, Bethan, believed this, and he certainly never preached it.
Would that reformed men today believed what Lloyd-Jones believed about the atonement and God's way of reconciliation.
But what characterises him especially is that he was a man of the Word, a Gospel preacher.
Did you know this?

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Roman Catholicism

As I survey the church situation today, I see precious little evidence of the church fulfilling this particular role at the critical time. Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (DMLJ) alerted me, as a young Christian, of the spiritual danger of Roman Catholicism. I considered him to be totally accurate in his understanding of Romanism, and this eventually led me to take a real and active interest in whole issue of ecumenism, especially that which involved the church’s increasing acceptance of Romanism as a bona fide Christian church, something he did not do. [1] In his view, it is "the devil’s greatest masterpiece,”[2] an “apostasy,”[3] and “a horrible counterfeit.”[4] He describes this religious system as “the whore,”[5]as the "great harlot," [6]which “manifested the wiles of the devil in all its subtlety and deceitfulness.”[7] She is guilty, he preaches, of “introducing idolatry and superstition”[8] into the Christian Church. She “comes between the soul and Christ” and pretends that she and her spurious ministrations are essential to eternal salvation. “This is ‘the scarlet woman,’ this is the most horrible, foul deception of all, because it uses His Name,” and describes it further as “this horrible monstrosity.”[10] He went on to argue that “the proudest boast of the Roman Catholic Church is this, that she never changes. ‘Semper eadem.’”[11] In this sermon, he went even further, if that was even possible, and described her in these terms; “…this is a counterfeit, a sham; this is prostitution of the worst and most diabolical kind. It is indeed a form of the antichrist, and it is to be rejected, it is to be denounced; but above all, it is to be countered.”[12] To the beloved Doctor, “that horrible institution”[13] is synonymous with “heresy.”[14]How astonishing it is to discover that he felt he had more in common with that false religion than he had with the widely accepted, honoured and protected theological liberalism that now controls every mainline denomination.

False doctrine is to be publicly opposed in our churches, and by her ministers, who are her accredited teachers. But ask yourself this: when was the last time you heard your preacher explain to you the fundamental differences that exist between Romanism and the true Christian faith? If you were asked what it is that makes you a Christian, and not a Roman Catholic, what would you answer? DMLJ knew what this difference is, and we can do no better than learn from this great servant of God.

So many Christian people have been taken in by Rome's false religion, and see her as no threat to the Christian faith in the world. But just compare what you see when Roman services are broadcast on TV with what you read of the early church in the Acts of the Apostles; can you spot the difference? Do any of the Roman-type churches bear any relation to the young Christian church as described in Acts? There were no institutions in the early days, but a living church in which God was present by His Spirit, and which proclaimed Christ Jesus as the Saviour of the world.

Having such a high regard for this preacher, and admiring his courage to ‘say it as it is,’ I discovered my own views on Romanism crystallising, and explains my total opposition to the unbiblical ecumenism that the main-line churches were peddling, and still do. These sentiments got my ear, as a young minister. Thank God for DMLJ. Would that more evangelical ministers had taken the trouble to study this man’s preaching and learn from his messages.



[1] Authentic Christianity Vol.1, p.148.

[2] The Roman Catholic Church, Westminster Fellowship within the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, first published in The Westminster Record in 1963, and inexplicably omitted from the Banner of Truth edition of The Christian Warfare, being DMLJ’s expository sermons on Eph.6:10-13), 5, 7.

[3] Roman Catholicism, 5.

[4] Roman Catholicism, 17. See also Authentic Christianity (Vol.1), 147,

148.

[5] Ibid., 6, 7.

[6] Authentic Christianity (Vol.1), p.148.

[7] Ibid., 7.

[8] Ibid., 8.

[10] Ibid., 16.

[11] Ibid., 17.

[12] Ibid.,

[13] Ibid., 18.

[14] Iain H. Murray, The fight of faith. (Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, 1990), 649.

Courage Under The Cross In Troubled Times

This recently re-published book from the author's pen is being offered to the Christian reading public when many people, believers included, are facing challenging times. Originally published in 1985, the book has been edited and re-set in order to make it easier to read and follow.

It deals with such spiritual problems as how to handle times when Jesus seems to be absent from us; is trouble in our lives a good thing or a bad thing? what are we to make of afflictions? God's special interest in His own people; what about those irksome things (and people) who make life unpleasant - like a thorn in the flesh? do we really need divine grace coupled with divine power to live the Christian life? what happens when our strength fails us - can it be renewed again? does looking to Jesus really make a difference?

These, you will agree, are timely and important matters for the Christian; and they are all addressed from a biblical perspective.

To get your copy, send a cheque, postal order or cash for £5.00 to: Really Living, 23 Parkmore Close, MAGHERAFELT, Co. Londonderry, BT45 6PL, Northern Ireland, UK. Please make cheques and postal orders payable to Dr J. E. Hazlett Lynch. Orders will be fulfilled within 10 working days.

Is the Orange Order Trinitarian?

I read through the Qualifications of an Orangeman, and they appear to me to be Binitarian and not Trinitarian. Am I correct in this, or am I missing something important? They mention the heavenly Father and Jesus Christ - the Savior of mankind (a good Calvinistic term used frequently by John Calvin in his evangelistic sermons). But there is no mention of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Holy Trinity.

Can anyone help me unravel this?