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?

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.

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[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?

Worship Again!

It has been some time since I last posted a piece in The Reformed Faith. That is not to say that I have not been thinking about important issues, for I have. Indeed, I was reading a booklet written by Rev Dr Warren Porter, entitled, "Presbyterian Worship." An excellent and brief treatment of an important subject such as true worship is, which raises some interesting issues, issues that all Presbyterians ought to read and take seriously.

The one thing that I noticed in this booklet was that any departure from classical and historical Presbyterian understanding of worship was essentially 'will worship.' This is another way of worshipping in an idolatrous manner. To worship the 'will' is not to worship the living and true God. Not to worship God in a reverent and biblically warranted way is to place our will in the place of the Word of God. That is 'will worship.'

In today's unfaithful churches, we see this in almost every church that has adopted worldly modernism as its theological model. Finding a place of worship is like finding a needle in a haystack. You are either bombarded with African tom-tom drums (with their clear association with Voodoo), heavy rock drumming (designed to drive traditional worshippers out of the churches), or churches where the minister is bereft of any ability in preaching, etc. This sad situation is getting progressively worse, and the really depressing thing is, that even the church elders could not care less about the way God is to be worshipped. These are the men who are charged under God to look after the spiritual well-being of the congregations. Insofar as they allow strange worship to be offered to God in their congregations, to that extent they are not caring pastorally for their members. Even new elders in these churches have been so conditioned by past worldly practice that they are now unable to discern between what is biblical and what is not! They have been 'trained' how not to think matters through. Therefore, the churches in which they serve have been left open to the ravages of all kinds of aberrant teaching.

An example of this is the recent repudiation of their Presbyterian beliefs in preference for those of a Baptist system, by 'Presbyterians' who were extremely critical of my exposition of biblical worship, and my criticism of so-called contemporary worship. Not only so, but they were supported by other senior Presbyterians who attended their baptismal service.

The lesson is that when any church lives loosely to its doctrinal standards, it opens the doors to further defections from what they were set up to uphold.

When will Christians from the Reformed family wake up to what is being done before their very eyes, and in their name, and with their authority? When will they start to take their ordination vows seriously? When will they become men of honour and integrity, and challenge those who are seeking to destroy any true Christian worship and witness that remains? For me, and for the honour of Christ, the sooner the better!

CALVIN ON TRUE WORSHIP

(Quotations, and comments on, are taken from Calvin’s Sermons on Micah, Farley, 2003, P&R).

For Christians of Reformed and Presbyterian conviction, the Genevan Reformed, John Calvin, is held in the highest esteem. His clear theological thinking has guided these believers down through the years, and his church practice is most agreeable to the Word of God.

In the following post, I have collected some opportune quotes from the Reformer with a view to helping Presbyterians better understand where their idea of worship came from, how Calvin crystallised this for them, and what we can learn from the Reformer's biblical teaching.

What Christian Presbyterians always remember is that worshiping and honouring God go together, p.34.

Calvin teaches that mankind is "full of pride and arrogance and cannot suffer anyone to reform them [it]." He continues by asserting that "the church itself is guilty of numerous abominations in the world. For it has become a haven of false pretence, no one daring to open his mouth in order to oppose what he knows to be wrong," p.34.

How apportune this is to today's unfaithful church on earth! The abominations that Calvin identifies include the 'haven of false pretence' in which many within the church engage. It is reminiscent of the Emperor's new clothes syndrome. Everyone knows that the pretence in which the church is willingly engaged is ridiculous and God-dishonouring, but who cares! The pretence in endemic within the churches today, and is seen in the way in which she pretends that all her members are Christians, that all her members are qualified to participate in the Lord's Supper, that all her members are very spiritual people, etc. So far-reaching is this religious pretence that it goes right to the very top of many of these churches, with senior people giving their willing and glad support to those in the membership who 'toe the line,' and do not challenge anything the leadership says! Indeed, many are so scared that they will not open their mouths to oppose what they know to be wrong.

Sadly, it matters not how orthodox any given church might think herself to be, for even the most theologically correct, as they perceive it, can fall into this ecclesiastical pretence, and all in a bid to save 'our church.' But to save 'our church' from what? It appears that this is not a difficult question to answer, for the evidence is everywhere apparent. The church has to be saved from, wait for it, the Gospel. And she has to be saved from those faithful prophets of God who see the Gospel in profoundly personal terms. The offense of the Cross is everywhere felt when the Gospel of God is proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit. But because every church claims that all her members are true Christians, when that offense is felt, it is not the people who need help, but the preachers!

In many churches today, including the very evangelical ones, there are within their membership, and even holding office, fornicators, adulterers, liars, trouble-makers, mischievous, busy-bodies, unbelievers, Gospel-haters, God opposers, the disobedient, lazy, thieves, blasphemers, filthy minded, foul mouthed, etc. They are all there!

Yet all the churches will stand by those who have been accepted into their membership, and woe betide anyone, ANYONE, to even suggest otherwise!

Calvin, in this passage, refers to the Catholic church, but his comments are applicable to all who forsake, either wittingly or unwittingly, the revealed ways of God as to how He is to be worshipped. As Calvin teaches, when God condemns Samaria and Jerusalem for their unfaithfulness, not only is Rome included, but so also is so much of 21st century church ‘worship.’ It all stems from the same filthy and poisonous root – departure from God and His revealed will in Scripture.

Let us never assume that departure from God's revealed will in Scripture is anything other than a most serious sin. How lightly the church takes such sin today! How she glosses over what is apparent to everyone else! And to substitute her own fallen notions for the pure Word of God is folly indeed. And it is this very sin that is so evident in all those who have perverted the worship of God. To be guided by the mind of God is all we need, but to seek our guidance from the mind of man is to be eschewed at all costs.

Calvin understands the “high places” in Micah 1:5b as serving as substitutes for worship, p.35. “There was scarcely a nook or cranny that did not house some religious paraphernalia. Everywhere one spoke of worshipping God. But we know what Jeremiah thought of all this. ‘Did God command you to do these things? No! For God does not wish to be worshipped in accordance with human fancy.’” And none of them was commissioned or sanctioned by God! [Jer.6:19-20; 7:21]. Hence, whenever we insist on approaching God in a manner that we find good, we must not suppose that God is required to accept it. For anything that God has not commanded us to do, or has put his stamp of approval upon, results in wages that can be collected only in hell, p.36.

What a stern warning this is to those professing Christians and church leaders who imagine that their ideas are more worthy than what God's mouth says! The arrogance of sinful man to even presume to use the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to silence the Gospel of Christ, is profound, and most worrying. And this did not only happen in Calvin's Geneva, it is happening before our very eyes today, if only we had the discernment to see it. So whatever becomes for us a substitute for worship, especially if it is carried out in the name of worship, is a "high place."

Calvin adds that when Rome sets up shrines and altars to the saints, as when the Jews set up altars to Baalism, they thought they were worshipping God. But they did not realise that God rejected them and condemned their practice, p.36.

The logical conclusion is that if God condemned the Jews for their perverted worship, and the Romans for theirs, how can we expect to escape if we think that God will accept our “human inventions that we use as a means of worshipping God”? “If God has not required such a form or act, he will reject it as an abomination,” (p.36).

Well must the church of today heed this timely and urgent warning. For evangelicals to be involved in "an abomination" is a perilous thing; and sadly, many are thus involved, and do not or can not or will not see it.

“Such abominable worship is a form of idolatry, a sin that is detestable in the sight of God,” p.37. To worship the true God in a false way is really to worship an idol. Is this what modern day evangelicalism within the 'reformed' churches is actually doing? I fear it is. Hence, my constant calls to the church not to offer to God "strange fire," to desist immediately for idolatry, and to stop offering to the living God what is an abomination.

This “leads only to confusion,” and God has promised to destroy them all. “We see the low esteem with which our Lord views all attempts to fashion questionable forms of worship to honouring him,” adding that “humanity abuses the name of God.” “While worshipping their idols, mankind completely reject what the living God himself has ordained. For we cannot invent forms of worship, based on our fantasies, without at the same time inventing a new god." …Would you not agree that [this] “transforms God into something carnal like themselves,” p.37.

Modern churchianity has, in effect, invented a new god, at whose shrine many bow down and worship every Sunday. It is not the God of the Bible they worship, nor is it the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Moses would not recognise this modern god, nor would the prophets, or the apostles, or even the Son of God Himself. The godly men of the Gospel in the early church, the Reformers, the Huguenots, the Puritans, and the early Methodists, both Calvinistic and Arminian, would fail to recognise this modern invention that is worshipped by modern 'hippies.'

“We should not be astonished to discover that God both rejects and condemns all forms of worship invented by mankind.” Why is there no felt presence of the Lord in many services of worship? Why is that hush of God's nearness absent from our services? Why can 21st century worshippers claim to have been in God's presence, then talk about everything and anything when leaving that service? It is because whoever they imagined was there, it was not the God of consuming fire!

And this can only happen when the church departs from the clear word of God for our sanctification. Were the church of today to keep to the true doctrine, then all such inventions would cease, regardless of cost.

The Gospel, The Church, and the Denomination

Gospel men love the Church, but denominational men love the denomination first and most! To love the denomination is not necessarily to love the church of Jesus Christ, though these should be the same. Love for the denomination that is so strong and obsessive that the truth is no longer welcome within its bounds, is, sadly, not a rare thing.

Men of the Word love the Church of Jesus Christ, but it does not necessarily follow that denominational men do likewise. Men of the Word desire to see the Church of Christ transformed increasingly in her life and witness into a Bride fit for the Bridegroom. They love the Church so much, so dearly and so tenderly, that they will expend whatever energy is needed to see her perfected and made fit for the great wedding day. But denominational men see no imperfections that need concern them. They see their own denomination as the perfect embodiment of the Christian Church, a denomination so righteous that it needs no repentance.

Men of the truth love the Church with a deep and deepening passion and want only her spiritual well-being; but denominational men are "at ease in Zion," and reject any suggestion that she can be improved spiritually. Of course, when you believe that your denomination is the purest expression of a biblical church in all its aspects to be found anywhere, then to even hint at her spiritual improvement is tantamount to heresy. To hint in this way is to assert that she is not perfect, and that is anathema to every denominational man, regardless of how pure he believes his 'church' to be.

Men of biblical and theological principle love the Church with an undying affection, and want to play their small part in leaving her in a better spiritual state than when they found her. Of course, denominational men frown at the very thought of the church/denomination to which they belong and in which they minister having to be improved spiritually.

Holman Hunt's memorable picture of the figure (Christ) standing outside the door (of the sinner's heart), and having no handle with which to open the door on the outside but only on the inside, suggests that the Church has a responsibility to welcome the Lord of the Church inside and into every aspect of her life, and not to leave Him standing on the outside. How easy it is to see this as an exclusively evangelistic appeal to the sinner to admit Christ into the heart while He is there standing at the door and knocking to gain entrance.

But the application of this principle comes much closer to home. In Rev.3, John describes Christ standing outside the church, knocking on the door, because He wants to enter and be welcomed by His redeemed people. In the tepid Laodicean church, with all its lukewarmness, the members and leaders have driven Christ, the Church's only Lord, King and Head, out of her midst. And He is ready to 'spew' or 'vomit' her out of His mouth! She turns His stomach! This church is so 'steady,' so 'unchanging,' so 'loyal to her historical and theological past' that she has become fossilised, so encrusted with years of unbending tradition, that she is now incapable of being renewed. So set in her ways is she that any thought of spiritual renewal or theological reformation is out of the question.

But 'my people would have it so,' it would appear. The one thing they say they want is for Christ to rule as the rightful Lord and Head of the Church, but in reality, if we take that too seriously, and He comes in, then our church will be no longer under our control, but His - and we can't have that! We and our forefathers have been in complete control of the denomination, and it has served us very well, so we do not want this Christ of yours to start exercising His rule in our church. "My people" still want to 'lord it over the flock,' instead of being its humble and obedient servants.

Can such a situation be changed? Can it be reversed? It all depends on what you mean, I can hear you say. If mere denominational men continue to control the church according to their dictates, or diktats, then the future is bleak, so far as any reformation or revival of the church is concerned. Yes, they will perform a 'holding operation' with their 'safe hands,' but they will not instill any spiritual life into dead denominations, of which there are plenty. Ministers will have to learn to take their responsibilities much more seriously, and be discerning about 'what a Christian is,' and 'how does one become a Christian.' The battle seems to have been lost at this basic level; and, like Elisha's question as to where exactly the axe head fell, the church has to return to where the problem arose, and start from that uncomfortable vantage point.

But if the denominational leaders do not even realise that the axe head has fallen off, but are still wondering why they are not seeing more true spiritual fruit for their labours, then the situation is indeed critical. What must be done in this situation? First, realise the true situation that confronts you, then work at the remedy from there. Second, have the courage to restore the lost 'axe head,' for without this, no effective and God-honouring work can be done. Third, be determined to see the matter through to its conclusion.

This is most costly, you understand. The denominational authorities simply will not stand for it. Why? Because if you are correct in your diagnosis, the implication is that they must be wrong. And if they are wrong, then you will have denuded them of the infallibility in which they took refuge - against the Word of God. And that will never do, will it?