Hodge and Lloyd-Jones on the Importance of Sound Instruction

It matters where you attend church. It matters very much who your pastor and teachers are and what they believe and teach. Sound religious instruction is invaluable. It is essential to one's Christian walk. Here are two quotations, the first from Charles Hodge, the second from Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, which set this idea in its proper light. The Charles Hodge quote was furnished by the Banner of Truth.

Charles Hodge

"The most natural method of appeasing conscience is the promise of reformation. Particular sins are therefore forsaken, and a struggle, it may be, is maintained against all others. This conflict is often long and painful, but it is always unsuccessful. It is soon found, that sin, in one form or another, is constantly getting the mastery, and the soul feels that something more must be done if it is ever to make itself fit for heaven. It is, therefore, ready to do or to submit to anything which appears necessary for this purpose. What particular form of works it may be which it endeavors to weave into a robe of righteousness, depends on the degree of knowledge which it possesses, or the kind of religious instruction which it receives." (Emphasis mine).

The Lloyd-Jones quotation comes from his series, preached during the 1960s at Westminster Chapel in London, on Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"The cardinal error into which many tend to fall is to think of ourselves as Christians in terms of our believing and our holding on, instead of looking at ourselves in the way in which Scripture always presents the position to us... There has been so much emphasis upon decision, receiving, yielding, being willing, and giving ourselves that salvation is regarded almost exclusively in terms of our activity... Many are in trouble simply because they do not realize the truth concerning the new birth... Nothing is more glorious than the doctrine of the rebirth; and this is obviously the work of God in us through the Spirit. We do not give birth to ourselves, we are not reborn because we believe. We believe because we are reborn." Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints) (Emphasis mine).

"And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (Ephesians 4:11-16). (Emphasis mine).

Real Christianity

Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

By D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"The cardinal error into which many tend to fall is to think of ourselves as Christians in terms of our believing and our holding on, instead of looking at ourselves in the way in which Scripture always presents the position to us... There has been so much emphasis upon decision, receiving, yielding, being willing, and giving ourselves that salvation is regarded almost exclusively in terms of our activity... Many are in trouble simply because they do not realize the truth concerning the new birth... Nothing is more glorious than the doctrine of the rebirth; and this is obviously the work of God in us through the Spirit. We do not give birth to ourselves, we are not reborn because we believe. We believe because we are reborn."

This runs contrary to all I learned growing up. Even as I young man, it was all I was acquainted with. It seems to be something that's not taught much anymore. But I believe it is the truth.

Real Faith

Dr. Lloyd-Jones

"Nobody can have faith unless the Lord opens the heart. It is impossible." 

 --Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans - Saving Faith)

"The first movement is from God to us, not from us to God."

 Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Dr. Lloyd-Jones' expositions of the Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Romans are available singly or as part of his 14-part series published by the Banner of Truth Trust.You can listen to all 366 of the doctor's sermons in the Romans series at the MLJ Trust website.

Started a New Book on the Last Day of the Year

My Christmas presents started to arrive yesterday and among the first to be delivered was this one, Dr. Lloyd-Jones's sermons on the twelfth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Romans 12 deals with "Christian men and women living out the new life given to them in Christ in relationship with their fellows in the church, exercising the gifts they have received, wrestling with problems and opposition, but finally triumphing over all difficulties through the faith, hope and love that underlie all truly Christian conduct."

I don't have the full set yet. Still lacking the volumes on chapters 13 and 14, but I will get these in due time. I need to read the volumes I already have. I've read a great deal in them, but I haven't read them all the way through. I need to do that.

True, there are sixteen chapters in Romans, but Dr. Lloyd-Jones passed away before he was able to finish the series. In fact, I believe he only got as far as verse 17 of chapter 14 before being overtaken by illness. These sermons from chapter 12 were preached during the 1960s.

The Great Question at Christmas

"... In his gospel Luke tells us who Jesus was .... Was he a man like every other man? Luke's answer is that he was not. Luke tells how the angel Gabriel went to Mary and told her that she was supremely blessed among women; that she was going to bear the Son of the Highest, and that he would be great. He would occupy the throne of his father David and of his kingdom there would be no end. Read it all in the first chapter of Luke's gospel. Mary was perplexed and asked how this could be since she was a virgin.

"Gabriel said: 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' (Luke 1:35).

"That is what Luke tells us and this means that Jesus came into the world. He was not just born like everybody else. He came out of eternity into time; he came from heaven to earth. This is Christianity. Whatever may be your moral and political views, the question confronting you is this: How are you related to the fact that the babe of Bethlehem is the eternal Son of God?"

-- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Authentic Christianity, Vol. 1 

(Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1999), 8-9.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones Interview (circa 1970)

This interview occurred after Dr. Lloyd-Jones' retirement from pastoring at Westminster Chapel, in London, for nearly 30 years. It is a remarkable interview, the like of which is seldom seen on live television these days. Ms Joan Bakewell, the interviewer, gave the doctor a pretty fair hearing ... and he took great advantage of it!

Oscar Wilde: Victorian or Not?

Up to this point, we have examined two periods, the Romantic and the Victorian, each of which was defined primarily in terms of time.  The Romantic period, we said ran basically from 1789 to 1832. (Froisy)  The Victorian period which immediately followed ran on until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.  There were some general trends associated with each period and, by and large, the writers who wrote during those eras tended to follow them.  The thing, however, that classified a writer as Romantic or Victorian was not whether he was a trend follower, but when did he/she actually write.

Oscar Wilde

Now we must answer the question about whether a certain writer, namely, Oscar Wilde, was or was not a Victorian.  Of course, the immediate answer is that he was without question a Victorian writer; his heyday was the late 19^th Century, the Victorian era.  But we know the question cannot be answered so simply because we are asked to answer in a way that tells us that the basis of the question had nothing to do with time but with things like style, and technique, and the writer’s willingness to publish things that did not exactly run true to the Victorian ideal. 

The suggestion is that Oscar Wilde was not a Victorian writer because he satirized Victorian morals, Victorian attitudes, especially toward sex, and Victorian manners and thinking in general.  Two of Wilde’s poems, Impression du Matin and The Harlot’s House, touch on the theme of prostitution, the whole idea behind these two satirical poems being that:  Hark! here, in the heart of prim and proper, Victorian England, there are prostitutes and men who frequent them.  These are the real Victorian virtues.  That is what he was saying.