I hope that this encourages you to consider this series of sermons. I believe that it will be well worth your time; especially this message.
Sibbes differed from many of his Puritan friends in that he never departed from the Church of England. Rather, he fought for the same reforms from within. For an excellent biography of Richard Sibbes, I recommend Mark Dever's Richard Sibbes (Mercer University Press, 2000). A great source to learn more about the lives and major writings of the Puritans is Joel Beeke and Randall Peterson's Meet the Puritans (Reformation Heritage Books, 2007). It is a treasure-trove of information.I shall never cease to be grateful to one of them [the Puritans] called Richard Sibbes who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil…. I found at that time that Richard Sibbes, who was known in London in the early seventeenth century as “The Heavenly Doctor Sibbes” was an unfailing remedy. His books The Bruised Reed and The Soul’s Conflict quietened, soothed, comforted, encouraged and healed me.
The bruised reed is a man that for the most part is in some misery, as those were that came to Christ for help, and by misery he is brought to see sin as the cause of it….
He is sensible of sin and misery, even unto bruising; and, seeing no help in himself, is carried with restless desire to have supply from another, with some hope, which a little raises him out of himself to Christ, though he dare not claim any present interest in mercy. This spark of hope being opposed by doubtings and fears rising from corruption makes him as smoking flax; so that both these together, a bruised reed and smoking flax, make up the state of a poor distressed man.
He has no means of supply from himself or the creature, and therefore mourns, and, upon some hope of mercy from the promise and examples of those that have obtained mercy, is stirred up to hunger and thirst after it.A portion that spoke to me in particular (and still challenges me) is chapter 5, The Spirit of Mercy Should Move Us, which addresses preachers and fellow Christians within the Church. Sibbes writes:
Preachers need to take heed therefore how they deal with young believers. Let them be careful not to pitch matters too high, making things necessary evidences of grace which agree not to the experience of many a good Christian, and laying salvation and damnation upon things that are not fit to bear so great a weight. In this way men are needlessly cast down and may not soon be raised up again by themselves or others. The ambassadors of so gentle a Saviour should not be overbearing, setting up themselves in the hearts of people where Christ alone should sit as in his own Temple. (26)This is applicable to all…but directed to spiritual leaders.
And likewise those are failing that, by overmuch austerity, drive back troubled souls from having comfort by them, for, as a result of this, many smother their temptations, and burn inwardly, because they have none into whose bosom they may vent their grief and ease their souls.
We must neither bind where God looses, nor loose where God binds, neither open where God shuts, nor shut where God opens. (28)Particularly to private Christians, Sibbes calls us to note that “we are debtors to the weak in many things.”
The church of Christ is a common hospital, wherein all are in some measure sick of some spiritual disease of other, so all have occasion to exercise the spirit of wisdom and meekness. (34)
Let us take to ourselves the condition of him with whom we deal. We are, or have been, or may be in that condition ourselves. Let us make the case our own, and also consider in what near relation a Christian stands to us, even as a brother, a fellow-member, heir of the same salvation. And therefore let us take upon ourselves a tender care of them in every way; and especially in cherishing the peace of their consciences. (34)Supplemental Reading
It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.This may seem rigid, and I do not follow this rule exactly myself, but the more I read, especially when I set out to review a book, the more clearly I understand how critical this rule is.
For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that "nothing happens" when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.…or a cup of hot coffee or tea; and, YES, a thoughtful reader is an active note-taker. Fill the margins as you converse with a book. Resist the urge to remain passive and silent!
I abominate 'devotional' commentaries. I do not want other people to do my devotions for me; yet I cannot think of a better term here. I am thinking of a type of reading which will help you in general to understand and enjoy Scriptures, and to prepare you for the pulpit. This type of reading comes next to the Scriptures. What is it? I would not hesitate to put into this category the reading of the Puritans. That is precisely what they do for us. Those men were preachers, they were practical, experimental preachers, who had a great pastoral interest and care for the people. So as you read them you find that they not only give knowledge and information, they at the same time do something to you. (174-5)How to Read Profitably
Solomon bids us buy the truth (Prov. 23:23), but doth not tell us what it must cost, because we must get it though it be never so dear. Remember, it is not hasty reading, but serious meditation upon holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian. &c. Reader, if it be not strong upon thy heart to practice what thou readest, to what end dost thou read?It is this art of meditation that has been lost upon many readers, and the Puritan authors are among some of the best guides.
On this day in 1981 Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones finished his earthly pilgrimage and entered the presence of his Savior. He had suffered from throat cancer for many months until he was no longer able to speak. When he realized his condition would not improve, he decided to suspend further treatments and requested his family not to pray for healing: "Do not hold me back from the glory." He was ready to meet the Lord.'Bear that in mind,' he said solemnly. 'Our greatest danger is to live upon our activity. The ultimate test of a preacher is what he feels like when he cannot preach.' Our relationship to God is to be the supreme cause of joy. To lean upon our sermons or words of testimony from others is 'a real snare for all preachers'. 'We cannot lean on them'. (Iain H. Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith 1939-1981; Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust; 1990. p. 738, emphasis mine)On the night of February 28, 1981 Lloyd-Jones read Scripture, and his daughter Ann prayed with him before he fell asleep. Sometime during the early morning hours of March 1 he awoke in the presence of the Lord. On this day we remember David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who faithfully expounded the Word, gave us a sense of the presence of God, and modeled what he preached in his living and dying.
This morning, I opened up Iain Murray's Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (BOT, 2008) and found a section in chapter two, "Preaching and the Holy Spirit," where Murray draws a comparison between Whitefield and Lloyd-Jones in order to illustrate the necessity of power in preaching. This is penetrating:There is an obvious reason why preaching too often lacks the ability to hold the interest of those who listen. It is because the word spoken has no more than a fleeting access to the hearer's mind. A statement is briefly heard only to be crowded out by the individual's own thoughts, which he may well find more interesting and pleasant. Thus the twenty or forty minutes of a sermon may pass, with a person in the pose of a listener, yet actually paying attention to very little. In contrast, powerful preaching takes hold of the whole person. It gets within a man. It first arrests the mind and then speaks to the heart, the conscience, and the will. Where this element is present inattention becomes a near impossibility. Skilful oratory and carefully crafted speech can go some way to hold the hearers but it does not command attention in this manner. Powerful preaching penetrates more than the surface of the mind; it does more than merely present teaching; it is capable of causing a moral and emotional earthquake - 'not simply with words, but also with power, withthe Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction' (1 Thess. 1:4).
An eighteenth-century church-goer who was also a shipbuilder confessed that he had often built a ship from stem to stern during a sermon, but when he heard George Whitefield he found himself unable to lay a single plank. The reason for this was noted by another of the evangelist's hearers: 'Whitefield preached like a lion, he spoke as one conscious of his high credentials, with authority and power.' So it was with Lloyd-Jones. His message often carried the conviction that it was more important than any other possible consideration. (pp. 34-35, emphasis mine)
Something Jason said about Mozart in his post on The Digital Karl Barth Library reminded me of a comment Martyn Lloyd-Jones made on the benefit of music to ministers starting their day of studying. Lloyd-Jones is dealing with the preparation of the preacher before the preparation of the sermon. In this discussion he uses Barth's delight in Mozart as an illustration.Someone recently said to me that he was astonished when reading the obituary notices at the time of the death of Karl Barth to find that Barth used to start the morning by listening to a record of music by Mozart. He said that he could not understand this. I said, 'What is your difficulty?' 'Well,' he replied, 'I am surprised that a thinker like Karl Barth went to Mozart; I would have expected him to go to Beethoven or Wagner or perhaps Bach.' He was astonished. My feeling about this man was that he evidently did not know the real value of music, or how to use it. 'I can tell you why Karl Barth went to Mozart' I said, 'He did not go to him for thoughts or ideas, he went to Mozart because Mozart did something to him in a general sense. Mozart put him into a good mood, and made him feel happy in his spirit. He released him, and set him free to do his own thinking.' A general stimulus in that way is often more helpful than a more particular intellectual one. The man himself is bigger than his intellect. Is not that the reason why the prophets of old had music played to them on the harp or some other instrument? . . . Anything that does you good, puts you into a good mood or condition, anything that pleases you or releases tensions and relaxes you is of inestimable value. Music does this to some in a wonderful way. . . . So put on your gramophone record, or whatever it is -- anything you know that will help you.
(Preaching and Preachers, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972. p. 183)
Iain H. Murray, Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace. Edinburgh: BOT, 2008. Jacketed Hardcover (cloth), xiv + 274 pages.
He was, of course, sympathetic to every evangelistic endeavour that did not compromise any biblical truth; but he believed that the gospel preached in a worshipping church, and in a local setting, has an advantage over other situations. Here the preacher is not just one man addressing a crowd: he is part of a community of believers who are not onlookers; they are involved; they too are witnesses in whom the Holy Spirit is present. When this is a reality, the incomer is confronted by something that has no counterpart in the world - 'thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth' (1 Cor. 14:25). Something of eternity may be felt on such an occasion: 'Our coming together in public worship should be a foretaste of heaven.'1
Footnote 1: [D. M. Lloyd-Jones,] God's Ultimate Purpose, p. 308. When the church suits her services to the taste of the world, however well-intentioned the endeavour, the ultimate result will never be biblical Christianity. (pp. 15-16)
From the New Testament times onwards, a vibrant, praying, witnessing church has always been the strongest authentication of the gospel. For ML-J mass evangelism without a recovery within churches was no solution. (p. 17)This one is going on my "Recommended Christmas Book Purchase" list. In the meantime, I also highly recommend the following handful of articles by our resident Lloyd-Jones "expert," Tim Ashcraft:
As Walter Chantry shows in this absorbing book, Habakkuk lived out his name by wrestling with God in prayer in the midst of a national and international situation resembling our own in many respects. As we read his prophecy, we hear Habakkuk pray, then listen as the Almighty responds. The divine response at first seems overwhelming. Yet at its centre is a glorious revelation of the very heart of the gospel (Hab. 2:4). In this brief exposition, previously published in the Banner of Truth magazine, Chantry draws out themes that are timely, challenging, but ultimately full of comfort.Another book worth studying is Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Faith on Trial, which is now back in print. It consists of a series of sermons Lloyd-Jones preached on Psalm 73, which deals with a saint's perplexity over why the wicked prosper. Very edifying! I have a copy of Faith: Tried and Triumphant, which is a combination of Faith on Trial and Lloyd-Jones' earlier little book on Habakkuk, From Fear to Faith. In this book are six sermons on Habakkuk that are highly instructive. I like the titles of his sermons:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
I've blogged before on my favorite book on the subject of preaching, Preaching and Preachers by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Mark Jones provides a good chapter-by-chapter summary of this book on his blog, Thomas Goodwin. I especially like his statement concerning chapter two, "No Substitute":Because man is a rebel and under the wrath of God, he needs to be told, through preaching, how he can be reconciled to God, and no other medium accomplishes this task like preaching. When we try other mediums like "preaching" morality without godliness, in trying to reach man, the results have the opposite effect and churches subsequently empty because there is no gospel basis.A theology of preaching rather than a homiletics book, Preaching and Preachers is a must-read for ministers and theological students. Mark's summary is a good introduction to Lloyd-Jones' book.
HT:(James Grant)
Available from: Amazon ($15.63) | ($16.09) | CBD ($16.99) | Cumberland Valley ($16.25) | WTS ($16.09)
Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is one of my favorite preachers. His sermons have been transcribed into books for decades. He preached so many sermons during his life that new books bearing his name have steadily appeared since his death in 1981. Now it will be easier to listen to the Doctor. The Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust is making available their weekly broadcast, Living Grace, on Oneplace.com. With a free registration you can download an mp3 of their half-hour radio program featuring the preaching of MLJ. You can also subscribe to the podcast of the program. Right now they have only one selection available. But since this is a weekly radio broadcast, I’m hoping they’ll update frequently.
I downloaded and listened to this program, the first part of a sermon called “Peace with God.” The registration was easy, the download was fast (assuming you have a fast connection), and the sound quality was excellent. The preaching, of course, was excellent, too. I smiled about 3 minutes into the message when Lloyd-Jones said his first “well, now then.” According to the biography by Iain Murray one of MLJ’s favorite expressions in the pulpit was “very well then” or some variation. He would even say it when preaching to Welsh congregations. He would be preaching along in Welsh, come to some good point, then say (in English), “Very well then,” and go on preaching in Welsh. It brought back very pleasant memories of reading that biography (Vol. 1; Vol. 2).
Since this is a radio program, there is a brief introduction, followed by about 25 minutes of the Doctor’s preaching, and then a short closing message from the Trust. I appreciate the description of their ministry (from the Oneplace.com website):
Living Grace is the Radio ministry of the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust. Our work and vision is to enable people everywhere to understand clearly the Scriptures and to come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do this through the preaching of the late Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones by radio, literature, audio recordings, and conferences. It is our desire to encourage the return of regular, systematic teaching of the Scriptures in our generation.
I gladly add my amen to their desire!
While downloading Lloyd-Jones, check out the website for the MLJ Recordings Trust (original UK site and North American site). Very well then; happy listening!
I saw this link to a Tom Brady interview on Challies today. I’m not as much of a sports fan as I used to be, but I was moved by this three-time Super Bowl winner’s concluding remarks. Even with all his success and money he seems not completely satisfied and says, “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me?” Acknowledging that people would object that he has reached his dream, he admits thinking, “There’s gotta be more than this.” The interviewer then asks, “What’s the answer?” To which Mr. Brady replies, “I wish I knew. I wish I knew.”
I think I was so affected because that was the way I felt thirty years ago. I wasn’t a star at anything, especially sports…just too slow I guess. But I landed a job at an international corporation’s newest expansion in upstate
I considered trying different things, possibly ruining my life in the process. But God, who is rich in mercy, intervened and drew me to His Son Jesus Christ. Though I had been raised in church, I just didn’t get it. That is, until God supernaturally opened the eyes of my understanding to see the truth of the Gospel. No one talked me into anything, pressured me to walk an aisle or pray “the sinner’s prayer.” The Lord just caused me to see the vanity of earthly things and worked in me a longing for something more, something that would make me feel happy and complete. That “something” turned out to be Someone. For the first time in my life Jesus Christ seemed really real to me. It seemed as though I had just come to life that summer night. Now, nearly thirty years later, I appreciate the Gospel even more than I did then. To God be ALL the glory!
How I wish Tom Brady would hear and believe the Gospel! I feel compelled to pray for him. Satan will be prepared with his offer of substitutes, but only Jesus can satisfy the soul. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, another person who turned to Christ after seeing the vanity of mere success, stated my feeling as succinctly as anyone I’ve ever read when he defined a Christian as “one who, since believing in Christ, feels himself to be the happiest man in the world and longs for everybody else to be equally happy!” (Iain H. Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, p. 56).
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born on this day, December 20, 1899 in Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born in
In 1927 Lloyd-Jones, with his new bride Bethan, moved back to
Having closed doors to further ministry based in
During his
After his retirement Lloyd-Jones devoted his remaining years to preaching at churches and conferences around the
One thing that strikes me about Lloyd-Jones’ ministry is his heart for God and for His people. He had a grand vision of the Sovereign God. I don’t remember where I read the quote, but Lloyd-Jones once defended a preacher who preached poorly by saying something like, “I can forgive a man much if he will give me a sense of God.” I get that sense when I read Lloyd-Jones, and I appreciate it greatly.
His heart for people is not a warm, fuzzy feeling that seeks to meet people’s “felt needs.” Lloyd-Jones showed his heart for God and people by accurately expounding God’s Word and applying it to people where they lived. If the Bible is God’s infallible revelation of Himself, it behooves preachers to take great pains to study it, learn it, and expound it. If people are the objects of God’s care, then it behooves preachers to apply God’s Word with fervency and discernment. Lloyd-Jones exemplified this. One of the last volumes to be published in his 8-volume Ephesians series is his exposition of Ephesians chapter 1. Surprised? This volume was preceded by his expositions of the filling with the Spirit and the Christian warfare. Lloyd-Jones explains:
I am ready to confess that in adopting this procedure I may well have been guilty of allowing my pastoral heart to govern my theological understanding, and especially my understanding of the Apostle Paul’s invariable method. My only defense is that in those other volumes I have repeatedly stressed that the teaching could only be understood in the light of the great doctrine which the Apostle lays down in this first chapter. (God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians 1.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones became the effective leader he was by first accepting God’s diagnosis of him and receiving the gospel prescription, then by accurately and powerfully searching out the disease of sin in others and telling them, “There is a balm in
On this day in 1662 In 1962 Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave an address at Westminster Chapel’s Puritan Conference to commemorate the tercentennial of this event. You can read that address in his book, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors. It is the chapter titled, “Puritan Perplexities—Some Lessons from 1640-1662.” Lloyd-Jones considered the Great Ejection a watershed event on an almost equal footing with the Reformation itself. I would like to give a summary of his points as to the causes of this tragedy and its lessons.
CAUSES
The mixing of politics and religion. From the time of the English Reformation many prominent Anglicans also held public office and had influence with the King, like the hated Archbishop Laud. The Puritans had grievances with Laud and his party, and so did others whose motives were not motivated by religion as were the Puritans’. These disenfranchised parties banded together in an unscriptural alliance to fight a common enemy. “To mix politics with religion in the church is always a danger” (Lloyd-Jones, p. 61).
Divisions among the Puritans. “This is what makes the story a real tragedy. Fundamentally these men were all agreed about doctrine” (Lloyd-Jones, p. 61). But they had endless disagreements over other matters, especially church government. Among the various groups of Puritans, Lloyd-Jones faulted the Presbyterians the most for this divisive spirit because “they were the most intransigent” (p. 62). Ironically, the Presbyterians “were always ready to make agreements with the king,” but they tended to fight those with whom they were in agreement on the essential matters of the Christian faith.
The idea of a State-Church. “The Presbyterians believed in a
LESSONS
The thing of supreme importance is “the gospel of salvation which is also ‘the gospel of the glory of God’” (p. 67). That is what all believers are agreed upon—a right view of the gospel.
“Coupled with that, there was their emphasis upon the necessity of having able and good ministers, and the primacy and the centrality of preaching” (pp. 67-68).
Our view of the church should be in line with the New Testament. How should doctrine and practice be determined? Our faith should stand squarely on the Scriptures.
Our divisions should be over the fundamental things of the faith, not things of lesser importance. That’s been a hot one for the last sixty years. Lloyd-Jones is arguing against a divisive spirit that won’t budge on non-essential matters. But to the intransigent there are no “non-essential” matters. Everything is seen in black and white; anything else is compromise.
We must fight this battle “in a spiritual manner, and not with carnal weapons” (p. 70). Many Presbyterians actually allied themselves with those who hated everything they stood for to gain political advantage. Some Puritans, like John Owen, stood against such carnality, and so should we. If we view party success as more important than the glory of God and the purity of the Church, “our cause is already lost” (p. 71).
“The ultimate lesson to be learned from this period is this: ‘The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own’” (p. 72). “If we see what the Truth is, well then, I say, we must hold to it and fight for it, and to refuse to compromise about it, whatever it may cost us” (p. 72).
I highly recommend The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. [CBD $25.99| WTS $18.20 | Amazon $21.27]
I’ll close the way Lloyd-Jones closed his address: “We thank God for the memory of these men, who, having seen the position clearly, acted upon it at all costs. May God give us grace to follow in their train!”
P & R Publishing has just released a book that looks very interesting. It’s a paperback titled B.B. Warfield: Essays on His Life and Thought, edited by Gary L.W. Johnson. The nine contributors include David B. Calhoun, who wrote a fine two-volume history of Princeton Seminary, where Warfield taught. Most of the contributors have a connection with either Maybe you’re not that familiar with Warfield. Unfortunately, neither am I. He isn’t as well-known today as he deserves to be. Eleven years after Warfield’s death in 1921, a young minister from
The book can be ordered online here.
Download a PDF version of the
This is the last in a five-part series on Lloyd-Jones on Ministerial Reading. It is based on the chapter, “The Preparation of the Preacher,” from his book, Preaching and Preachers. He has given wise counsel on what and how a preacher should read in general to keep himself in shape for pulpit work. In addition to rightly reading the Scriptures Lloyd-Jones recommends reading certain types of books that will always be helpful to the preacher, and he counsels balance in reading these books so that the preacher will be well-read, well-rounded, humble, and useful.
His counsel to preachers in all things, including reading, is, “Know yourself.” The minister must know what books and authors are most likely to counteract his changing moods and help him get back to the place where he can better “understand and enjoy the Scriptures” (p. 174). What he needs most is the Word of God. Yet Lloyd-Jones acknowledges that sometimes we are dull toward the things of God for various reasons, and at such times we need the help that frequently comes from others who have struggled and found the grace of Christ sufficient.
Lloyd-Jones was a voracious reader who apparently outdid many of his contemporaries. He loved good books and consistently urged others to avail themselves of them. When he addressed the students at Westminster Seminary on this subject, he raised and answered the most logical question.
What is the purpose of all this reading? I reiterate that the object of all this reading is not primarily to get ideas for preaching…As men tend to read their Bibles in order to get texts for sermons, so they tend to read books in order to get preaching material. I would almost describe this as the occupational disease of the ministry. I remember a minister telling me in 1930 that he had been to a conference…designed to deepen people’s spiritual experiences…I was expecting him to tell me something about what he had experienced, or of what it had meant to him spiritually; but that is not what he told me. He said, “I got wonderful preaching stuff there.” Preaching stuff! Preaching material! He did not go to the conference to derive spiritual benefit, but simply to get material—illustrations, stories of other people’s experiences, etc—for his sermons…He had become a professional (p. 180).
Lloyd-Jones gives examples of preachers who got their sermons from books bought from a local bookshop. The only problem was…these preachers were frequently preaching the same sermon on the same day…and the people in their respective congregations knew each other. They were caught! There is still frequent discussion and controversy on the topic of plagiarism in the pulpit. And the discussion isn’t always limited to Christian circles.
So if getting “preaching stuff” isn’t the primary purpose for reading, what is? “It is to provide information; but still more important, it is because [reading] is the best general stimulus. What the preacher always needs is a stimulus (p. 181, emphasis added). Lloyd-Jones says that preachers are not gramophone records or tape recording machines. If that lecture were delivered today, he might have said “CDs and mp3 players.” The Doctor promoted books as an aid to our own thinking, not as a substitute for it. “What we preach is to be the result of our own thought. We do not merely transmit ideas” (p. 181).
I once heard a preacher comment on this subject. Referring to his use of books in preparing sermons he said, ”I milk many cows, but I churn my own butter!” Since I can’t remember who that preacher was, can I claim that as original, or would that be plagiarism? Lloyd-Jones says it this way: “Do not just repeat it as you have received it; deliver it in your own way, let it emerge as a part of yourself, with your stamp upon it” (p. 181). That’s good counsel. May we enjoy the constant stimulation of good books and not become mere machines with a playback button we press whenever we face a congregation. “Such a man will soon become barren…and his people will have recognized it long before he does” (p. 181).
In his counsel to ministers on their general reading habits Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones strongly recommends keeping up with academic studies. He warns ministers against thinking “they have acquired all they need” when they finish school. “I have known men in the ministry, and men in various other walks of life who stop reading when they finish their training…The result is that they vegetate and become quite useless. Keep on reading; and read the big works” (Preaching and Preachers, p. 177).
What big works does the Doctor prescribe? “The first is theology…The preacher should continue to read theology as long as he is alive. The more he reads the better, and there are many authors and different systems to be studied” (p. 177). The biography by Iain Murray records that Lloyd-Jones discovered such treasures as Jonathan Edwards and B.B. Warfield in local libraries while on vacation in
The Doctor also stresses
the importance of reading Church history…It is of much greater value to the preacher than to the student. And he needs to be reminded constantly of the great facts. In exactly the same way one should continue to read biographies and the journals of men of God, especially these men who have been greatly used as preachers—Whitefield, the Wesleys and so on…The more you read along those lines the better equipped you will be. All this, remember, comes under the heading of the preparation of yourself (p. 177).
With all the different types of reading he recommends, the Doctor also prescribes balance; and that for two reasons. The first is to avoid an imbalance that might result in intellectual pride.
The danger for the intellectual type of man, if he is only reading theology or philosophy, is to become puffed up…the best thing he can do when he feels that he knows all, and is elated and tempted to intellectual pride, is to pick up say the Journals of George Whitefield. There he will read of how that man was used of God in
The other reason why Lloyd-Jones counsels balanced reading is for the sake of your health.
One should always be reading along these differing lines daily. I have developed a sort of routine which I think is sound and profitable almost from the physical standpoint as well as the other. If I am reading the stiffer and the more difficult books, or the more directly theological books in the morning, I read the other types at night…It does not matter so much when you are young—at that stage you can do almost anything you like and still sleep—but as you get older you will find that it is not quite so easy…So balance your reading for all these reasons (pp. 179-180).
If we want to be healthy spiritually and physically, the Doctor orders balanced reading.
