Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

In the early 1970’s I was a young pastor just getting started in pastoral and pulpit ministry.  A dear friend, not much older than I, a student at Columbia Bible College, gave me a copy of Preaching and Preachers, by Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  It was and continues to be one of my most cherished books.  I now realize how timeless the book is.   Preaching and Preachers should be read by every preacher and by anyone considering pulpit ministry.

I will borrow just a few of Lloyd-Jones’ words to stir your interest in this must read book, but also to share with someone who is reading a point of view on preaching that is slowing be swept into the shadows.

From chapter one, The Primacy of Preaching.  Why am I prepared to speak and lecture on preaching?  There are a number of reasons.  It has been my life’s work.  I have been forty-two years in the ministry, and the main part of my work has been preaching; not exclusively, but the main part of it has been preaching. In addition it is something that I have been constantly studying.  I am conscious of my inadequacies and my failures as I have been trying to preach for all of these years;  and that has led inevitably to a good deal of study and of discussion and of general interest in the whole matter.  But, ultimately my reason for being very ready to give these lectures is that to me the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which  anyone can ever be called.  If you want something in addition to that I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent  need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.

The statement about its being the most urgent need leads to the first matter that we must discuss together–Is there any need for preaching?  Is there any place for preaching in the modern Church and the modern world, or has preaching become quite outmoded?  The very fact that one has to pose such a question, and to consider it, is, it seems to me, the most illuminating commentary on the state of the Church at the present time. I feel that that is the chief explanation of the present more or less parlous condition and ineffectiveness of the Christian Church in the world today.  This whole question of the need of preaching, and the place of preaching in the ministry of the Church, is in question at this present time, so we have to start with that.  So often when people are asked to lecture or to speak on preaching they rush immediately to consider methods and ways and means and the mechanics.  I believe that is quite wrong  We must start with the presuppositions and with the background, and with general principles; for unless I am very greatly mistaken, the main trouble arises from the fact that people are not clear in their minds as to what preaching really is….

From the Dust Jacket:  Some may object to my dogmatic assertions; but I do not apologize for them.  Every preacher should believe strongly in his own method; and if I cannot persuade all of the rightness of mine, I can at least stimulate them to think and to consider other possibilities.  I can say quite honestly that I would not cross the road to listen to myself preaching, and the preachers whom I have enjoyed most have been very different in their style.  But my business is not to describe them but to state what I believe to be right, however imperfectly I have put my won precepts into practice.  I can only hope that the result will be of some help, and especially to young preachers called to the greatest of all tasks, and especially in these sad and evil times.  With many others I pray that ‘The Lord of the harvest may thrust forth many mighty preachers to proclaim the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ.’ “

Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born in South Wales.  He trained at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, qualified as physician and became assistant to the famous Lord Horder.  He gave up his medical career in 1927 and became the minister of a Welsh Presbyterian Church in Aberavon, South Wales.  He was there until 1938 when he moved to London to share the ministry of Westminster Chapel with Dr. G. Campbell Morgan who retired in 1943.  This ministry lasted for 30 years until Dr. Lloyd-Jones retired in August 1968.

RDW

Robert Murray Mcheyne

EARLY WILL I SEEK YOU…

I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer.  This is a wretched system.  It is unscriptural.  Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place.  David said, “Early will I seek thee,”  and, “My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning.”  Family prayer loses much  of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me.  My conscience feels guilty, my soul unfed, my lamp not trimmed. Then, when in secret prayer, the soul is often out of tune.  I feel it is far better to begin with God—to see His face first—to get my soul near Him before it is near another.

Robert Murray McCheyne

Robert Murray McCheyne

Those who study the life of Robert Murray McCheyne know him to be a man mighty in prayer.

From E.M. Bounds collection on prayer, page 467, McCheyne addresses the topic of “The Divine Channel of Power.”

Study universal holiness of life.  Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last only an hour or two; your life preaches all week.  If Satan can make you a covetous minister, a lover of praise, of pleasure, or good eating, he has ruined your ministry.  Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God.  Luther spent his best three hours in prayer.

–Robert Murray McCheyne

J. Hudson Taylor

A young man had been called to the foreign field.  He had not been in the habit of preaching, but he knew one thing, how to prevail with God; and going one day to a friend he said, I don’t see how God can use me on the field.  I have no special talent. His friend said, My brother, God wants men on the field who can pray.  There are too many preachers now and too few pray-ers. He went.  In his own room in the early dawn a voice was heard weeping and pleading for souls.  All through the day, the shut door and the hush that prevailed made you feel like walking softly, for a soul was wrestling with God.  Yet to this home, hungry souls would flock, drawn by some irresistible power.  Ah, the mystery was unlocked.  In the secret chamber lost souls were pleaded for and claimed.  The Holy Ghost knew just where they were and sent them along.

-J. Hudson Taylor, Founder of China Inland Mission, and missionary to China.

E.M. Bounds

E.M. Bounds is one of my favorite writers on the subject of prayer. I have all of his books and especially enjoy the compilation book, E.M. Bounds on Prayer. This book is a compilation of most of Bound’s works.

Today I am thinking particularly of how the modern church has put prayer in the shadows, very close to the same place it has put preaching. E.M. Bounds emphasized the importance of prayer in every area of life, especially in the life of the church.The following comes from, The Divine Channel of Power.
We are continually striving to create new methods, plans and organizations to advance the church.  We are working to provide and stimulate growth and effectiveness for the Gospel.

This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man. Or else he is lost in the workings of the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than anything else.  Men are God’s method.

The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.  …When God declares that, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).  He declares the necessity of men.  He acknowledges His dependence on them as a channel through which He can exert His power on the world.

This vital, urgent truth is one that this age of machinery is apt to forget.  The forgetting of it is as detrimental to the Word of God as removing the sun from it sphere would be.  Darkness, confusion, and death would ensue.

What the church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more and novel methods.  She needs men whom the Holy Spirit can use–men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.  The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men.  He does not come on machinery, but men.  He does not anoint plans, but men– men of prayer!

E.M. Bounds