Martin Lloyd Jones Quotes

All this teaching that repentance does not matter, and that it does not matter whether you have a sense of sin, and whether you realize your need of forgiveness, and that all you have to do is to 'Come to Jesus as you are' is utterly unscriptural. Indeed it is illogical. ~ Martin Lloyd-Jones

The only way to understand yourself or your life is to start with God. And right at the very beginning the Bible takes us there. If you are not clear about this, you will go wrong everywhere else. ~ Martin Lloyd-Jones

Henry Scougal, the Scotsman who lived nearly three hundred years ago. He said that Christianity is 'the life of God in the soul of men'. In other words, what makes us Christian is not primarily what we do, but what God does to us. That is essential Christianity. This rebirth, this being born again is all God's action; that is not man's, it is God's. It is being born from above. It is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, the essential thing about being a Christian is that one has thus been dealt with by God, and that is an experience. It is not only experience, of course; there is the element of understanding, and so many other things. But the vital thing is just this experience ~ Martin-Lloyd Jones

We see now that the whole cause of our trouble is that people do not base their lives upon God. They have set themselves up as gods, and the gods are fighting one another, and life has been chaos ~ Martin Lloyd-Jones

God does not mean for us to be passive. He means for us to fight the fight of faith--the fight for joy. And the central strategy is to preach the gospel to yourself. This is war. Satan is preaching for sure. If we remain passive, we surrender the field to him. So Lloyd-Jones gets specific and gets tough:
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself... You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: "Hope thou in God"--instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way, and then you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, and... what God has done, and what God has pledged himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the help of my countenance and my God." [from Psalm 42:5]
Of course, the "self" is not the only one who talks to us in our head. So does the devil, and so do other people as we replay their comments in our memories. Therefore, when Lloyd-Jones tells us to preach to ourselves, he knows we must be addressing all these joy-killing messages. That's why he talks about defying self, Satan and other people. When we preach the gospel to ourselves, we are addressing every word of ~ John Piper

Planning to keep me in a state of slightly drugged good cheer?"
"Planning to keep you," she said, "regardless of what state you're in. ~ Emily Lloyd-Jones

I can learn from the preachers of the past, and should; but I must not be a slavish imitator of them. ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

She's a lunatic," says Conrad.
"Absolutely insane," says Guntram.
"Either completely fearless or utterly stupid," says Conrad.
"She's going to fit right in," says Guntram. ~ Emily Lloyd-Jones

Ins't that the point? It's neither your right, nor your privilege, to sit in judgement of anyone. Certainly not a people about whom you know so little. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

Their touch triggered an electric spasm of agony. He felt the gushing warmth of blood on his fingers. [Charles Meredith] ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

Preaching the Word is the primary task of the Church, the primary task of the leaders of the Church, the people who are set in this position of authority; and we must not allow anything to deflect us from this, however good the cause, however great the need. ~ David Lloyd-Jones

She tried, and failed, to stop herself from shaking. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

Yet she felt no horror at what she had witnessed, no nausea. their lives - and their deaths - had not mattered. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

I was one of those heart seeds us kids had heard about in class. I was at some earlier stage of a journey that would deliver me to another place, to another life, into another way of being. I just didn't know where or when. ~ Lloyd Jones

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

The anticipation of the loss hurts nearly as much as the loss itself. You find yourself trying to hold on to every detail, because you'll never have them again. ~ Emily Lloyd-Jones

Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of the Kool-Aid jingle is at once chilling and evocative. Donny Osmond is brilliant as James Jones. ~ Christopher Moore

All friendships experiences challenges, periods of difficulty. But true friendships also endure. True friendships heal. ask yourself if this is a true friendship and I hope you'll agree that is what we have. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

A man who imagines that because he has a head full of knowledge that he is sufficient for these things had better start learning again. 'Who is sufficient for these things?' What are you doing? You are not simply imparting information, you are dealing with souls, you are dealing with pilgrims on the way to eternity, you are dealing with matters not only of life and death in this world, but with eternal destiny. ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

For years she had lived in a vacuum of emotions, and now emotions boiled in her: love, fear, hope, shame, self-pity, pride; each struggled for supremacy, ruling only briefly, before surrendering to a contender that was sometimes darker and sometimes lighter, but always different. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

I just want to matter,' he said unsmiling.

It was like pulling a curtain back, peering behind a mask made of smiles and quips. This was the real James, this young, bright, desperate thing. There was a burning intensity to his eyes, and she saw for the first time a boy who would sell his heart--not for some hobby, but because he thought it was the only way to life the life he wanted.

They had that in common. ~ Emily Lloyd-Jones

So there is nothing more vital for us to realize than this very thing: the Christian life, the Christian faith, is not something that we add on to what we have; it is something that is done to us. ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The devil is so subtle that he dominates man and persuades him at the same time that he is not being dominated. ~ David Lloyd-Jones

[The] term 'decide' has always seemed to me to be quite wrong…A sinner does not 'decide' for Christ; the sinner 'flies' to Christ in utter helplessness and despair saying -
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.
No man truly comes to Christ unless he flies to Him as his only refuge and hope, his only way of escape from the accusations of conscience and the condemnation of God's holy law. Nothing else is satisfactory. If a man says that having thought about the matter and having considered all sides he has on the whole decided for Christ, and if he has done so without any emotion or feeling, I cannot regard him as a man who has been regenerated. The convicted sinner no more 'decides' for Christ than the poor drowning man 'decides' to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape. The term is entirely inappropriate. ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

We've been to secretive, perhaps. For long periods in our shared history, that was a necessity born from conflict. But it is not, I am prepared to accept, a style of living compatible with the modern age. It is difficult to maintain trust that way. Even among friends. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

There is a great need of more familiarity with the Scriptures and their teaching in order that we may be crushed to our knees with a sense of humility and be made to cry to God that He would visit us again. ~ David Lloyd-Jones

But she did not say that, because some things could not be said. Not when a person looked cracked open with pain and hope, when a single word might shatter them. ~ Emily Lloyd-Jones

There is nothing more foolish or self-defeating than for a Christian to say that he is not interested in doctrines. ~ David Lloyd-Jones

Five years ago I was in love with you so utterly I thought I might go mad from it. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

Even death is going to die! ~ Sally Lloyd-Jones

I am not asking whether you know things about Him but do you know God, are you enjoying God, is God the centre of your life, the soul of your being, the source of your greatest joy? He is meant to be. ~ David Lloyd-Jones

The pain would be awful , but at least she would be free. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

I am profoundly grateful to God that He did not grant me certain things for which I asked, and that He shut certain doors in my face. ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The Church has been trying to preach morality and ethics without the Gospel as a basis; it has been preaching morality without godliness; and it simply does not work. It never has done, and it never will. And the result is that the Church, having abandoned her real task, has left humanity more or less to its own devices. ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Yes, but you will never know any joy until you know Christ. He is the source of joy; He is the fount of all blessings; everything comes through Him. ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Twice damned, in truth, and yet by quirk of timing and fate accepted into that society denied to so many others. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

I suppose it is possible to be all of these things. To sort of fall out of who you are into another, as well as to journey back to some essential sense of self. We only see what we see.
He was whatever he needed to be, what we asked him to be. Perhaps there are lives like that - they pour into whatever space we have made ready for them to fill.
~ Lloyd Jones

Cotswold stone framed tiny sash windows gleaming with pale green paint. Wisteria vines twisted about the stone, bunches of purple flowers hanging thick and heavy with pollen. Above it all a tiled roof sagged with sage. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

Perhaps it was a tacit acknowledgement of her tendency to find danger, to gravitate towards self-destruction, but she'd been terrified of heights all her life. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

(He) found that articulating those feelings made him feel morose. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

What is preaching? Logic on fire! Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this. I say again that a man who can speak about these things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should never be allowed to enter one. ~ David Lloyd-Jones

perhaps that's what we thought we were. Benevolent gods.
Now look at us. ~ Stephen Lloyd Jones

For six days I didn't get up except to make a cup of tea, or fry an egg, or lie in the skinny bath gazing at a cracked ceiling. The days punished me with their slowness, piling up the hours on me, spreading their joylessness about the room.
A doctor would have said I was suffering from depression. Everything I have read since suggests this was the case. But when you are in the grip of something like that it doesn't usefully announce itself. No. what happens is you sit in a dark, dark cave, and you wait. If you are lucky there is a pinprick of light, and if you are especially lucky that pinprick will grow larger and larger, until one day the cave appears to slip behind, and just like that you find yourself in daylight and free. This is how it happened for me. ~ Lloyd Jones

Be still, and know that I am God'. We must not interpret that 'Be still' in a sentimental manner. Some regard it as a kind of exhortation to us to be silent; but it is nothing of the sort. It means, 'Give up (or 'Give in') and admit I am God. God is addressing people who are opposed to Him ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

There was something about siblings - a language that was half memory and half glance. Jests and jibes. They were a tangle of love and resentment, and despite their differences, Ryn knew he would defend her to the death. ~ Emily Lloyd-Jones

Though we claim to believe the whole of Scripture, in practice we frequently deny much of it by ignoring it. ~ David Lloyd-Jones