The Way of the Heretic

The heretics were never dishonest men; they were mistaken men. They should not be thought of as men who were deliberately setting out to go wrong and to teach something that is wrong; they have been some of the most sincere men that the Church has ever known. What was the matter with them? Their trouble was this: they evolved a theory and they were rather pleased with it; then they went back with this theory to the Bible, and they seemed to find it everywhere.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

Objectively Test Belief

There must be an objective test for what we believe. Experience is not a test; a many may become very happy and live a much better life than he did before, though he believes something that is not true. Things with are not true in and of themselves may appear at first to do us good because, of course, the devil can turn himself into an angel of light; it is pathetic to notice the way in which some people forget that teaching. We must never base our doctrines upon experience, but upon truth.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Don’t Cheapen the Bible

What we must do is to educate the masses of the people up to the Bible, not bring the Bible down to their level.  One of the greatest troubles in life today is that everything is being brought down to the same level; everything is being cheapened.  The common man is made the standard and the authority; he decides everything, and everything has got to be brought down to him. . . .  Everywhere standards are coming down and down.  Are we to do this with the Word of God?  I say, No!

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Knowing the Times, pg.112

A Generation Hating the Truth

There have been periods in history when the preservation of the very life of the church depended upon the capacity and readiness of certain great leaders to differentiate truth from error and boldly to hold fast to the good and to reject the false; but our generation does not like anything of the kind.  It is against any clear and precise demarcation of truth and error.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Knowing the Times, pg.39

How to Preach the Gospel

The Scripture lasts down quite plainly not only that we are to preach the gospel, the true message, but also how we are to do so. It tells us that we are to do so with “sobriety” and with “gravity,” in fear and trembling, in “demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” and not with “enticing words of man’s wisdom.”  But today evangelistic methods which are a flagrant contradiction of these words are justified in terms of results.  “Look at the results,” men say.  “Such and such a man may not conform to the scriptural method, but look at the results!”  And because of “the results” the plain dictates of Scripture are put on one side.  Is that believing the Scriptures?  Is that taking the Scriptures as our final authority?  Is not that repeating the old error of Saul, who said, “Yes, I know, but I thought it would be good if I did so and so.”  He tries to justify his disobedience by some result he is going to produce.  We Protestants, of course, hold up our hands in horror at the Roman Catholics, especially the Jesuits, when they tell us that “the end justifies the means.”  It is the great argument of the Church of Rome.  We repudiate it in the Roman Catholic Church, but it is a common argument in evangelical circles.  The “results” justify everything.  If the results are good, the argument runs, the methods must be right—the end justifies the means.  If you want to avoid terrible disillusionment at the day of judgment, face Scripture as it is.  Do not argue with it, do not try to manipulate it, do not twist it;  face it, receive it and submit to it whatever the cost.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 2, p.280

False Prophets

The false prophet is a man who has no “strait gate” or “narrow way” in his gospel.  He has nothing which is offensive to the natural man; he pleases all.  He is in “sheep’s clothing,” so attractive, so pleasant, so nice to look at.  He has such a nice and comfortable and comforting message.  He pleases everybody and everybody speaks well of him.  He is never persecuted for his preaching, he is never criticized severely.  He is praised by the Liberals and Modernists, he is praised by the Evangelicals, he is praised by everybody.  He is all things to all men in that sense; there is no “strait gate” about him, there is no “narrow way” in his message, there is none of “the offence of the cross.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 2, p.244

No Crowd With the Christian Life

You must start by realizing that, by becoming a Christian, you become something exceptional and unusual.  You are making a break with the world, and with the crowd, and with the vast majority of people.  It is inevitable; and it is important that we should know it.  The Christian way of life is not popular.  It never has been popular, and it is not popular today.  It is unusual, exceptional, strange, and it is different.  On the other hand, crowding through the wide gate and travelling along the broad way is the thing that everybody else seems to be doing.  You deliberately get out of that crowd and you start making your way towards this strait and narrow gate, alone.  You cannot take the crowd with you into the Christian life: it inevitably involves a break.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 2, p.221

The Christian Man (and Woman)

The Christian is a man who should walk through this life as conscious that it is but transient and passing, a kind of preparatory school.  He should always know that he is walking in the presence of God, and that he is going on to meet God; and that thought should determine and control the whole of his life.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 2, p.159

Spiritual Worldlings

There are so many people who can be described as spiritual worldlings.  If you talk to them about salvation they have the correct view; but if you talk to them about life in general they are worldlings.  When it is a matter of the salvation of the soul they have the correct answer; but if you listen to their ordinary conversation about life in this world you will discover a heathen philosophy.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 2, p.139

Not All Are God’s Children

The world today believes in the universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.  That is not found in the Bible.  It was our Lord who said to certain religious Jews that they were “of their father the devil,” and not children of Abraham, not children of God.  It is only to “as many as receive him” that He gives the right (the authority) “to become the sons of God.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 2, p.53

Do Not Be Conformed to This World

I cannot understand the Christian who wants to look like the typical, average, worldly person in appearance, in dress or in anything else—the loudness, the vulgarity, the sensuality of it all.  No Christian should want to look like that. …

As Christians we should all desire to be unlike those worldlings, and yet at the same time we must never get into the position of saying that it is our dress that truly proclaims what we are.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 2, p.42-43

See People As Sinners In Need of Salvation

If we examine ourselves, we shall see at a glance that one of the most tragic things about us is that our lives re so much governed by other people and by what they do to us and think about us.  Try to recall a single day in your own life.  Think of the unkind and cruel thoughts that have come into your mind and heart.  What produced them?  Somebody else!  How much of our thinking and acting and behaviour is entirely governed by other people.  It is one of the things that make life so wretched.  You see a particular person and your spirit is upset.  If you had not seen that person you would not have felt like that.  Other people are controlling you.  “Now,” says Christ in effect, “you must get out of that condition.  Your love must become such that you will no longer be governed and controlled by what people say.  Your life must be governed by a new principle in yourself, a new principle of love.”

The moment we have that, we are enabled to see people in a different way.  God looks down upon this world and sees all the sin and shame, but He sees it as something that results from the activity of Satan.  There is a sense in which he sees the unjust man in a different way.  He is concerned about him and about his good and welfare, and He therefore causes the sun to shine upon him and sends the rain upon him.  Now we must learn to do that.  We must learn to look at other people and say: “Yes, they are doing this, that and the other to me.  Why?  They are doing it because they are dupes of Satan; because they are governed by the god of this world and are his helpless victims.  I must not be annoyed.  I see them as hell-bound sinners.  I must do everything I can to save them.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.304-305

Make No Provision For the Flesh

“Make not provision of the flesh,” says Paul, “to fulfill the lusts thereof.”  There is a fire within you; never bring any oil anywhere near it, because if you do there will be a flame, and there will be trouble.  Do not give it too much food; which being interpreted means this, among other things: never read anything that you know will do you harm. … Do not read those reports in the newspapers which are suggestive and insinuating and which you know always do you harm.  Don’t read them; “pluck out your eye.”  They are of no value to anybody; but alas, there they are in the paper and they pander to the public taste. … The same is true of books, especially novels, radio programmes, television and also the cinema.  We must come down to these details.  These things are generally a source of temptation, and when you give time and attention to them you are making provision for the flesh, you are adding a little fuel to the flame, you are feeding the thing you know is wrong.  And we must not do so.  “But,” you say, “it is educational.  Some of those books are written by marvelous people, and if I do not know these things I shall be considered an ignoramus.”  Our Lord’s reply is that, for the sake of your soul, you had better be an ignoramus, if you know it does harm to know these things.  Even the most valued thing must be sacrificed.

It also means avoidance of what the Bible calls “foolish talking and jesting” — stories and jokes thought to be clever but which are insinuating and polluting.  You will often get that kind of thing with its cleverness, subtlety and wit, from highly intelligent men.  The natural man admires it all; but it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.  Reject it; say you do not want it, that you are not interested.  You may offend people by saying so.  Well, offend them, I say, for the sake of your soul.  Again, we must be careful in the company that we keep.  Let me put it like this.  We must avoid everything that tends to tarnish and hinder our holiness.  “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” which means, “avoid every form of evil.”  It does not matter what form it takes.  Anything that I know does me harm, anything that arouses, and disturbs, and shakes my composure, no matter what it is, I must avoid it.  I must “keep under my body,” I must “mortify my members.”  That is what it means; and we must be strictly honest with ourselves.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.249-250

Evolution or the Bible?

If you believe in the evolutionary theory, you are really saying that God never made man perfect, but is bringing him to perfection.  Therefore there is no true sin.  But the Bible teaching is that man was made perfect and that he fell from that perfection, with the result that this power, this canker, has entered human nature and is there as an evil force within.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.238

“Negative” Teaching is Fine

Many, alas, seem to object in these days to negative teaching.  “Let us have positive teaching,” they say.  “You need not criticize other views.”  But our Lord definitely did criticize the teaching of the Pharisees and scribes.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.181

BE, Then Speak

Whether we like it or not, our lives should always be the first thing to speak; and if our lips speak more than our lives it will avail very little.  So often the tragedy has been that people proclaim the gospel in words, but their whole life and demeanour has been a denial of it.  The world does not pay much attention to them.  Let us never forget this order deliberately chosen by our Lord; “the salt of the earth” before “the light of the world.”  We are something before we begin to act as something.  The two things should always go together, but the order and sequence should be the one which he sets down here. 

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.165

Non-Christians Hate to Think About Death/Eternity

The non-Christian does everything he can not to think of the world beyond.  That is the whole meaning of the pleasure mania of today.  It is just a great conspiracy and effort to stop thinking, and especially to avoid thinking of death and the world to come.  That is typical of the non-Christian; there is nothing he so hates as talking about death and eternity.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.140

The Problem is the Heart of Man

The terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man’s troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you have nothing to do but to change his environment.  That is a tragic fallacy.  It overlooks the fact that it was in Paradise that man fell.  It was in a perfect environment that he first went wrong, so to put man in a perfect environment cannot solve his problems.  No, no; it is out of “the heart” that these things arise.  Take any problem in life, anything that leads to wretchedness; find out its cause, and you will always discover that it comes from the heart somewhere, from some unworthy desire in somebody, in an individual, in a group or in a nation.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.110

Hungering and Thirsting After Righteousness

I can never make myself like Jesus Christ, but I can stop walking in the gutters of life.  That is a part of hungering and thirsting. …  I suggest that if we are truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness we shall not only avoid things that we know to be bad and harmful, we shall even avoid things that tend to dull or take the edge off our spiritual appetites.  There are so many things like that, things that are quite harmless in themselves and which are perfectly legitimate.  Yet if you find that you are spending much of your time with them, and that you desire the things of God less, you must avoid them.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount,” volume 1, p.91

Pride Prevents Coming to Christ

It is pride that keeps a man from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Most of those who are not Christians, particularly the intellectuals, are unbelievers because of their pride.  They refuse to say, “Vile, and full of sin I am.”  Of course they are not!  They will not say that they are “helpless” and that they can do nothing.  They are convinced that they can do a great deal, and they are trying to do so.  They have confidence in their own morality, confidence in their own understanding, in their views, and in many other things.  Their reliance upon these things prevents them from becoming Christians.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Christian Soldier: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-20,” pg.238