Customer Reviews

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones the First Forty Years 1899-1939 (v. 1)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First volume of Murray's substantial biography on Martyn Lloyd-Jones stands head and shoulders above every biography I have ever read. What a great man of God was Lloyd-Jones, and what a great God he served. From the account of his childhood in Wales, to his prominence in Harley Street as a physician, to his conversion and subsequent ministry in Aberavon, this is a wonderful book. Not a story full of dramatic happenings, but rather the quiet obedience of a man who shunned publicity, but was honored by the God of heaven, and saw the mysterious and sovereign movings of the Spirit upon his hearers. Well documented with numerous sermon excerpts, newspaper quotes, and personal interview with the "Doctor" and his wife themselves, this was a fantastic book with which to end 1997. I shall treasure this volume always, and make a point to read it more than once more in the years to come. I thank God for this book and the inspiration it has been to me.

The First volume of this work by Murray shows the dynamism of a man who strived for Christ-Exalting Power. After reading the is biography I can only ask myself, "Can such men live again?" What made Dr. Lloyd-Jones so used by God?

I suggest at least three factors:
1) He placed the origin of revival at the proper source, God. His theology of revival was supremely theocentric. He knew that true revival is when a Sovereign God awakens the hearts of his people. Such a revival proves real conversion.
2) Second to his power was the need for holy study. At a time when the academia in Britain were denying the sacred text, and with no conservative alternative, Lloyd-Jones filled the gap and held high the Scriptural banner. What was said of Edwards could be said of him: "He put fidelity to the Word of God above all else." Also was his constant study of great theologians like the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards, and Warfield.
3) Although this theme is brought out more in the second volume, he was more concerned with pleasing God than appeasing men. This is seen in him giving up a medical career for a pastorate. Would to God that there were more preachers who lived before an audience of one!

At times his theology will challenge one. His view on Baptism in the Holy Spirit is worth dialouging and debating. And for some, he will appear odd in that he was a Calvinist evangelist, a model for men to come. His message is desperately relevant for us today.

This book, along with its companion volume has become more precious and helpful to me than any other volume in my library. I was introduced to Lloyd-Jones through a foot note in a John MacArthur book and 'the Doctor' has now become THE desert island author of my life. In just a few short years the written versions of his sermons have had more influence in shaping my own understanding of the Scriptures and the true method of expository preaching than anything else. Oh, how the church needs more men like Martyn Lloyd-Jones! The two volume biography by Iain Murray proves both the skill of Iaian Murray as a biographer/historian (read everything he writes!) as well as the man of a great God Lloyd-Jones was.

Volume 1 covers, obviously the early years of the great preachers life, covering his career in medicine, conversion, call to preach and ministry at Sandfields. Reading this books is to witness the magnifying of GOd in a young mans heart as the world is totally eclipsed by the grandeur of the Gospel of Christ. Murray's account of Lloyd-Jones years at Sandfields is a clinic for pastors. It was a great encouragement to me to see that he faced in rural Wales the same types of issues that a young Reformed-minded pastor faces in rural Alabama!. I truly get caught up in the spiritual growth and revival experienced in that church during Lloyd-Jones ministry there. It is truly the building of a CHURCH.

Vol. 2 begins with the acceptance of Lloyd-Jones acceptance of G. Campbell Morgans request to him to co-pastor Westminster Chapel in London. The struggles Lloyd-Jones faced in this decision present great lessons on discerning the will of God for the believer. The wisdom of the young pastor as he leads this great church through the war and the retiring of Morgan shines forth. The rebuilding of that great congregation coupled with the wider ministries that opened up for the Doctor in the 50's and 60's point to his influence. No one else stood as he did for the truth during a very tumultuous time for the evangelical world. Against the tide of liberalism and ecumenical compromise he stood as a rock, and often alone!

To read the life of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is to read of the life of GOd pulsatint through an obedient vessel caught up in glory of the Master he serves. God is the hero of this amazing story. All Christians, and certainly all pastors will be greatly encouraged and strengthened by reading Iain Murrays masterpiece of grace in the life of this preacher/pastor. And as always with Murray, the subject of his book 'lives' through the pages. No biographer is as thorough in his research and as faithful in his interpretation of his subject as is Murray. The books are so chock full of Lloyd-Jones' own words that they almost read like autobiographies.


The inside cover of my copies have written in them the dates of my first readings of the books, followed by the comment: 'And constant companion thereafter.' Enough said.

Wonderful account of the mighty workings of the Living God through the Holy Spirit in the life of a humble Harley Street Specialist-Preacher.
Praise the LORD.

What a challenge - not to lesser mortals, but to equally mortal lessers to be "Strong in the LORD and the POWER of HIS might.

Great biography of a faithful man of God. I particularly loved the stories of men and women who came to Christ as a result of the Lord's work through him.

I still remember when I first read this book in 1993. I was going through a period of theological upheaval on the subject of unconditional election (I didn't believe in it at the time). I had heard of Dr. Lloyd-Jones and knew that he was a Calvinist, so I thought I'd read his biography and get some insight into why such a great man would be a Calvinist. I got that, but much, much more.

The biography deals with his life up to the time he resigned his first pastorate. It includes his early life, his becoming a medical doctor under the supervision of Lord Horder, and his eventual leaving of the medical profession to become a preacher.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones is certainly "out-of-date" by today's standards, but this first volume shows that he was "out-of-date" even in his own day. He shunned the popular methods that were present in the Calvinistic Methodist churches and decided to preach Christ only. No entertainments, no sports teams, just preaching. This, in turn, led to something of a revival in the church for the next few years.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones believed that the job of the minister was to preach and preach well. He believed that is through the preaching of the gospel and the exposition of the Scripture that people come to know Jesus Christ. He put this into action in his first pastorate at Sandfields, Aberavon, and this first volume of his biography tells the story well.

Other books that I would recommend for those looking for more information on Dr. Lloyd-Jones would be: the second volume of the biography (David Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith 1939-1981) by Iain Murray; Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace, also by Iain Murray; and Memories of Sandfields by Bethan Lloyd-Jones (his wife).

I still get this book out to read fairly often and ponder those now far off days in Wales.

I've known about Martyn Lloyd-Jones for years. I knew he was a medical doctor who gave up a promising career to become a pastor. I knew he was stern and a gifted preacher who could take years to work through a book of the Bible. I remember being captivated listening to a cassette tape of him preaching on two words: "But God..." But when I kept hearing Tim Keller mention the influence of Lloyd-Jones on his own ministry, I had to learn more. I'm glad I did.

The first thing that struck me as I read this volume is how little things have changed. Sometimes I make the mistake of thinking that we are the first to encounter some of the trends and fads that everyone writes about. The landscape of this book seemed familiar to me: churches in decline, a massive rethinking of theology, an emphasis on pragmatism, a loss of confidence in preaching, a desire to be relevant, and an old version of the attractional-incarnational debate. Anyone who is familiar with books and blogs on church life today will recognize many of the same issues in this book, even though Lloyd-Jones lived a century ago.

Lloyd-Jones became an oddity within this context. He believed that the solution to the decline of the church was nothing less than a rediscovery of the Gospel, and a reawakening to the identity of the church. In other words, Lloyd-Jones pressed for a return to first things. He seemed radically out of step with his times, but the result was a greater relevance and impact than if he had tried to be relevant.

Here's an example of the problem as Lloyd-Jones saw it:

"We are not declaring the Gospel with power to a dispirited and disillusioned age; we are not living in the discipline of Gospel fellowship; only in a very imperfect degree are our churches God's resting place and holy habitation. The depressing and alarming thing about our churches is not their tiny congregations, their shabby buildings, their social insignificance, their political impotence. If our churches are in peril it is not because they are less crowded than cinemas, less powerful than the promoters of dog-racing, less correct than Sunday golf, less fashionable even than Romanism or Christian Science. If our churches are in peril, it is because they have forgotten what they are."

Surprisingly, Lloyd-Jones didn't believe in evangelism programs. He believed that when the church understood the Gospel and who she was, and lived in light of that reality, that would have more of a missional impact than any Gospel program. This reminds me of what Dallas Willard said about not making outreach a primary goal.

Even though Lloyd-Jones violated everything that his contemporaries said about effective ministry, his impact was enormous and is still being felt today.

Besides this book's message for today, there is lots to appreciate about the story of his life. I was surprised to read that Lloyd-Jones almost moved to Winnipeg as a boy. As a resident of Toronto, I loved reading of his visits to this city, and how we confronted T.T. Shields, the polemical pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church, and told him to stop being so negative. While staying at 74 St. George Street in Toronto, Lloyd-Jones discovered a series of books across the road at Knox College that significantly shaped his life. And we read that he never tired of visiting Niagara Falls.

A good biography is humbling. This one helped me realize that our problems and the proposed solutions aren't so new, that God uses individuals who are somewhat out of step with the times, and that the solution involves, more than anything else, the Gospel.

I'm looking forward to reading Volume 2.

This two-volume work by Murray is surely the definitive biography on the life of the famous Welch preacher, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. In nearly 1200 pages of text Murray traces the life and ministry of this man of God, who in many ways was the final link between the modern church and the great eighteenth century English preachers.

Lloyd-Jones' legacy is somewhat uneven. On the positive side, he welded enormous influence in the effort to return evangelical preachers to sound doctrinal and theological preaching. His expositions of the New Testament epistles are legendary. He preached almost 400 sermons on the book of Romans before his health broke while preaching through chapter 14. The Doctor was an enthusiastic Calvinist and a strong supporter of the writings of the Puritans.

On the negative side, MLJ was at times influenced by his Calvinism and Puritanism to go beyond Scripture. This is most evident in his views on revival. He cut his spiritual eyeteeth in the Calvinistic Methodists denomination, which, while being relatively sound doctrinally, takes a highly mystical approach to the Christian life and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Calvinistic Methodist were deeply involved in The Welch Revival of 1904, and although he was too young to be involved there is a sense in which MLJ never "got over" this revival. He spent the rest of his life looking for another such "movement of the Spirit." This pursuit greatly affected his view of the Christian life and the church. MLJ's commentaries on Romans vividly proves this point. Having read the first six commentaries on Romans, covering chapters 1 through 8:4, I was quite impressed with how biblical most of the teaching was. I could not believe that within a few years after his death the very church that MLJ had pastored had become Vineyard. But volume seven which contains MLJ's teachings on revival and the Holy Spirit explained it all. At this point MLJ all but laid his Bible down and turned to the experiences of past revivals of the church. He then developed his pneumatology on the back of these experiences. The result was calamitous. What a lesson for us all. Here was a man who attempted to base his whole ministry on Scripture but he had a blind spot. And unfortunately that blind spot has caused great damage.

Nevertheless, if you are a fan of the Doctor, and want to understand his ministry, these two volumes are without peer.

In this biography of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones written by Iain Murray we have an account of the life of a godly man used by God. This book is part one of two volumes, and contains the first forty years of Lloyd-Jones' life. In the first three chapter's Murray writes about Martyn's childhood, his joys, sorrows, struggles, schooling, and concluding with events about his promising medical career. Chapter four deals with his conversion, and his early convictions about the current state of Christianity in Wales, with Chapter five dealing with his call to the ministry, and the majority of the rest of the book reveals to us Lloyd- Jones' ministry in Aberavon.

Reading through these pages I learned that Dr. Jones was a gifted, humble man who desired not to make a name for himself, but to lead people to the Savior whom he so loved. He believed in the sufficiency of Scripture, the doctrine of the new birth, doctrinal preaching, the importance of reading the Puritans, and that God alone was the sole author of revival.

This biography should be required reading for anybody thinking about going into the ministry, and also many Christians would enjoy reading about the glory of God revealed through this man. With that said, I think Lloyd-Jones would want us to say the following after reading this biography, "Don't talk about me, talk about my Saviour" (page 226).

If Martyn Lloyd-Jones' life was fiction, it would be a good novel. The fact that it is real and that Ian Murray was personally acquainted with Lloyd Jones and his family makes this a must-read biography, even though it is quite long. Highly recommended!