Lloyd-Jones on pride and biographies

"The best way of checking any tendency to pride-pride in your preaching or in anything else that you may do or may be-is to read on Sunday nights the biography of some great saint. It does not matter which, or to which century or branch of the church he belonged as long as he was a saint ... if that does not bring you to earth then I pronounce you are ... beyond hope." (Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. Preaching and Preachers. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publ. House, 1971. 256)

I need to read more biographies.

Lloyd-Jones on preaching

"I say this because I believe, as I have been indicating, that in preaching the message should always arise out of the Scriptures directly and not out of the formulations of men, even the best men."

Interestingly and surprisingly, Lloyd-Jones is not singularly for a systematic verse-by-verse or passage-by-passage expositional preaching of Scripture. He does believe, as the above quote indicates, that all preaching should be expositional. However, he is fine with, and often participated in, preaching on topics derived from Scripture. What he was against was preaching that was initiated with man's ideas to which a preacher would add Scriptures he felt were relevant. The preacher should begin with the Word and build his sermon on it.

Impulses to Pray

Having just finished Preaching and Preachers by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I thought I would share a few quotes from this excellent book. Over the next few days, I will post some thoughts and ideas by Lloyd-Jones along with some thoughts of my own.

This first quote is great advice for any Christian who realizes they need to pray more often; is there any Christian who doesn't? Lloyd-Jones simply implores the preacher, and I extend this to every believer, to pray whenever they get an impulse to. It sounds pretty simple, right? But so many of us, certainly myself, don't do this. Our prayer lives would improve significantly if on every impulse, even if it is just briefly, we responded with prayer.

Here is Lloyd-Jones on prayers and their impulses:

"Above all—and this I regard as most important of all—always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are battling with a text. I would make an absolute law of this—always obey such an impulse. Where does it come from? It is the work of the Holy Spirit; it is a part of the meaning of, ‘Work out your won salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure’ (Phil 2:12-13). This often leads to some of the most remarkable experiences of the minister. So never resist, never postpone it, never push it aside because you are busy. Give yourself to it, yield to it; and you will find not only that you have not been wasting time with respect to the matter with which you are dealing, but that actually it has helped you greatly in that respect. You will experience and ease and a facility in understanding what you are reading, in thinking, in ordering matter for a sermon, in writing, in everything, which is quite astonishing. Such a call to prayer must never be regarded as a distraction; always respond to it immediately and thank God if it happens to you frequently. (Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. Preaching and Preachers. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publ. House, 1971. 170-171)

I hope this is helpful. I am going to work at this. An immediate response to an impulse to pray would be a great discipline for me.