Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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NO LASTING CHANGE

“Our physical bodies and natural appetites were created by God and are not sinful in themselves. Nevertheless, if left uncontrolled, we will find our bodies becoming ‘instrument of wickedness’ rather than ‘instrument of righteousness’” (Rom 6:13)” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p108).

“We tend to act according to our feelings. The trouble is, we seldom ‘feel’ like doing what we should do” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p111).

“There is no point in our saying that we believe that Christ has died for us and that we believe our sins are forgiven unless we can also say that for us old things are passed away and all things are become new, that our outlook toward the world and its method of living is entirely changed. It is not that we are sinless, nor that we are perfect, but that we have finished with that way of life” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, March 28th).

“[T]hrough our union with Christ we have died to this realm of sin. We have been set free from sin (Romans 6:18), rescued from the dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13), and turned from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18). Before our salvation we were in bondage to sin, under the reign and rule of sin. Regardless of how decent and moral we were, we lived in the kingdom of sin. But now through our union with Christ in His death to sin, we have been delivered out of the realm of sin and placed in the kingdom and realm of righteousness” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p54).

“A person who manifests a self-reliant recognition of wrong assigns to himself the power to do better and then gives himself to spiritual-looking acts of penance that make him feel good about himself and his potential ability to do better. But while he is acknowledging sin, there is no verticality to what he is doing. [T]here is no Godward confession, no recognition of his desperate need for rescue, and no repentance that is motivated by a heart filled with gratitude for and worship of God. It is an ‘I can save myself’ way of dealing with sin, and it is far more prevalent in the church of Jesus Christ than we would think. It never results in lasting change” Paul David Tripp ( ref# 190, Nov 17th).

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PURIFYING MYSELF

“Satan would try to confuse us on the issue of what God has done for us and what we must do ourselves” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p51).

“God has indeed made provision for us to live a holy life, but He also has given us definite responsibilities” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p51).

“’Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.’ He does not submit to purification; he purifies himself. The whole emphasis is upon the activity. In other words, the New Testament teaching about holiness is not one which tells me that all I have to do is to let myself go and to surrender myself, to give up effort and striving. It is not just telling me that all I have to do is to die and get rid of myself and forget myself and then life will come in. No! It is active, and I am told to purify myself ‘even as he is pure.’” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p45).

“To confuse the potential for resisting (which God provided) with the responsibility for resisting (which is ours) is to court disaster in our pursuit of holiness” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p57).

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5 ESV).

“’Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth’. I have to do that; these members will not agree to be mortified; I have to take them, and I have to punish my body. I am enabled to do that by the Holy Spirit who has been given to me; yes, and that is included in the fact that I am a child of God. I have been born again, I have received a new nature, and the Holy Spirit is in me. Therefore, because of that, I must do this, I must purify myself even as He is pure. I purify myself by considering Him, by looking at Him and His perfect life; that is the pattern I am to follow” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p45).

“There is no point in praying for victory over temptation if we are not willing to make a commitment to say no to it” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p93).

“Remember the statement that ‘discipline without desire is drudgery.’ Where will the desire to engage in the discipline of mortification come from? It will only come from the gratitude and joy of knowing that however miserably I have failed, God’s grace is greater than my sin” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p206).

“For God to cease to love his own, God would need to cease to exist, because God does not simply have love; he is love (1 John 4:16). In the death of Christ for us sinners, God intends to put his love for us beyond question. The sun is shining. It cannot stop. Clouds, no clouds—sin, no sin—the tender heart of the Son of God is shining on me. This is an unflappable affection” Dane Ortland (ref#382, p193).

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UNDER THE DOMINION AND POWER OF SATAN

“A gruesome death like the one that Christ endured for me would only be required for one who is exceedingly sinful and unable to appease a holy God” Milton Vincent (ref#60, p33).

“[T]he awful condition of the unconverted. [They are] under the dominion and power of Satan, led captive by him at his will (2 Tim 2:26)” Octavius Winslow (ref#381, p46).

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—“ (Eph 2:1-2 ESV).

“[T]o live under the dominion of sin connotes a settled course of life” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p71).

“[I]t is a faithful portrait of you, if you are yet not born again of the Spirit. The strong man armed, who is the devil, has still the full possession of your soul and will remain in undisputed, and willing occupation until a stronger than he enters, spoils him of his goods, and casts him out. It is his aim and policy to keep your soul in carnal security, in false peace, in the stillness and insensibility of spiritual death. Mistake not rash confidence for humble faith, groundless expectation for assured hope! Satan is a great counterfeiter! He not only can quote Scripture, but he can imitate grace” Octavius Winslow (ref#381, p46).

“As long as you are in the position of trying to justify yourself, you have not repented” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Dec 29th).

“If you have quit being defensive and are now willingly and humbly approachable, you know that transforming grace has visited you. Sin makes us all shockingly self-righteous. It makes us all committed self-excusers. Because accepting blame is not natural, it takes rescuing, transforming grace to produce a humble, willing, broken, self-examining, help-seeking heart” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Apr 26th).

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He changes; I trust

TWO WAYS TO REACT TO SIN

“[T]he problem of man with respect to God is not only the problem of the guilt of sin. Merely to be forgiven is not enough; we have to keep the law of God that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. [B]ut we have not kept it; we cannot do so, and we can only keep it in Him. He has kept the law for us” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p54).

“You can’t try to be better than you really are. [Y]ou try to re-create yourself by becoming spiritual. Jesus said that he came for sinners, for messed-up people who keep messing up” Paul E. Miller (ref#62, p33-34).

“Our first problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p16-17).

Two ways to react to sin: concern to how it affects humans and concern to how it affects GOD: “In the one case, the heart is only mortified; in the other, it is truly humbled. The one is a feeling that deals only with others; the other is an emotion that has to do with God. Once the believer is solemnly conscious of acting beneath the eye of God, the gaze of other eyes barely affects him. Oh, how little do some who profess faith act as though they had only to do with God! How imperfectly do they look at sin as God looks at it! But if they lived more with the Lord always before them, how would they rise above the poor opinions of others! It would then appear a very little matter for them to be judged with man’s judgment” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Apr 16th).

This is what happens to my sin when I concentrate on JESUS: I remember that I am a new creature—a person who does not desire to sin—a person who is more interested in maintaining a relationship with JESUS than striving to be righteous. Do I want to be right, or do I want to be with JESUS? For the more I love Him the more I want to please Him. St. Augustine one said, “Love God and live as you please.”

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EXCEEDING EVIL OF SIN

“God’s grace is active, rescuing, transformative grace. You celebrate this by being as serious about your need as the God of this grace is. God took sin so seriously that he did two things when the first transgression occurred—he immediately meted out punishment and he immediately set in motion his plan of rescue and redemption. Both demonstrate God’s seriousness about what we all too easily deny or minimize” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, June 5th).

“[T]he truth of what the Word of God declares concerning the exceeding evil of sin; for the same eye that discerns the transcendent beauty of holiness necessarily therein sees the exceeding odiousness of sin; the same taste which relishes the sweetness of true moral good tastes the bitterness of moral evil. And by this means a man sees his own sinfulness and loathsomeness; for he has now a sense to discern objects of this nature, and so sees the truth of what the Word of God declares concerning the exceeding sinfulness of mankind, which before he did not see. He now sees the dreadful pollution of his heart; and this shows him the truth of what the Scripture reveals concerning his nature, and his need of a Savior” Jonathan Edwards (ref#229, p83).

“Why did the Son of God come into this world of sin? He came ‘to save that which was lost’, to provide pardon and forgiveness of sin by the shedding of His own blood and the breaking of His own body upon the cross. If I say I have no sin, I am denying the incarnation, the death and the resurrection—I am making God a liar” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p113).

“[F]ailure to realise that we as sinners need forgiveness is the failure to realise the nature of sin, to grasp that our own natures are sinful and to understand that we have all actually sinned and need forgiveness” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p113).

“Corruption does not lie dormant in the Christian: though it reigns not supreme (because of a principle of grace to oppose it) yet it molests and often prevails to a very considerable extent. Because of this the Christian is called upon to wage a constant warfare against it: to ‘mortify’ it, to struggle against its inclinations and deny its solicitations” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p112).

“[W]hen divine justice is seen requiring the very heart’s blood of God’s only son in order to quench its infinite need for satisfaction; when God in Christ is seen in His humiliation, suffering, and death, all with the design of pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin; how fearful a sin against this holy Lord God seems! Do not be discouraged if the more intensely the desire for sanctification rises, the deeper and darker the revelation of the heart’s hidden evil” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Aug 13th).

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DOCTRINE OF SIN

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8 ESV).

“[O]ur very natures are sinful. The reference here is not to acts of sin, but to the nature that produces the acts of sin. [T]he state which is both the cause and the consequence of what we do” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p111).

“[S]omeone who has never realised the gospel and precisely what is meant by sin fail to realise that particular truth about sin; they will persist in thinking of it in terms of sins—particular sins and actions. But according to the Bible that is a hopelessly inadequate view of sin. Sin according to the Bible everywhere, is a realm, a kingdom. The Bible tells us that there are two kingdoms in this world, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil and the kingdom of holiness and the kingdom of Satan and of iniquity. [T]here is such a thing as sin and evil, a realm, an attitude, an outlook, a mind” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p109).

“It is one of the hardest tasks in the world to bring the heart to a sincere persuasion that sin is indeed as vile as God’s word represents it; and that it deserves all that His law threatens against it” John M’Laurin (ref#333, p263).

“The doctrine of sin is essential, and unless I realise I am a sinner and must repent, and if my only hope is not in Christ and His death for me on the cross and His resurrection for my justification, I not only have no fellowship with God, but I am dwelling still in utter darkness. Oh yes, to have fellowship with God we must not only be clear about the nature of God, we must be equally clear about ourselves and our own nature” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p114).

“[S]in has an indwelling and captivating power, whereby it continually assaults the principle of spiritual life, beating down the Christian’s defenses, battering his armour, routing his graces, wasting his conscience, destroying his peace, and at last bringing him into a woeful captivity unless it be mortified” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p112).

“If we do not realise that we are sinners and need the forgiveness of God; if we do not realise that we have always needed it and that we still need it; if we think that we have always been perfect or that now we are perfect as Christians; if we do not realise that we must repent we are making God a liar” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p113).

“The Jews, the chosen people, thought they were all right: ‘Those others, the Gentiles,’ they said, ‘are dogs; they need it, but we do not.’ But God convicts Jew and Gentile; there is none righteous; the whole world, every mouth, has been stopped. That is the doctrine of the Bible; so if we say we have not sinned, we are denying the doctrine of the Bible” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p113).

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SATAN

“[T]he god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4 ESV).

“Man was made perfect by God, but he was tempted and fell, and the result has been that the whole world has been polluted” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p109).

“This world has become the kingdom of Satan” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p318).

“The devil tempteth many millions of souls with the offers of the kingdom of heaven itself” Richard Baxter (ref#333, p 195).

“There is no greater curse than for a man to get his will and desires in the world” James Fraser of Brea (ref#333, p236).

“Satan is putting forth desperate efforts to ensnare the world. He is devising many plans to occupy minds and to divert attention from the truths essential to salvation. In every city his agencies are busily organizing into parties those who are opposed to the law of God. The arch deceiver is at work to introduce elements of confusion and rebellion, and men are being fired with a zeal that is not according to knowledge” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p219).

“Satan himself changes his outward expression from one that comes from his inner nature and is representative of it, to one that is assumed from without and not representative of his inner being, masquerading as a messenger of light” (2 Cor 11:13-14 Wuest).

“Satan attacks the church’s perseverance and purity through violent persecution, through deceptive teaching, and through affluence and sensual pleasure” ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2455).

“Wickedness is reaching a height never before attained, and yet many ministers of the gospel are crying, ‘Peace and safety.’ But God’s faithful messengers are to go steadily forward with their work. Clothed with the panoply of heaven, they are to advance fearlessly and victoriously, never ceasing their warfare until every soul within their reach shall have received the message of truth for this time” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p220).

“We are not to flee from Satan, but to resist, that he may flee from us” Lady Powerscourt (ref#333, p353).

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SIN AGAINST A HOLY GOD

“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Ps 51:4 ESV).

“David does not deny that he has sinned against the others, but here he is going a step further. He realizes that his actions are not simply actions in and of themselves. He sees that they not only affect and involve other people, but their real essence is that he has sinned against God” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Dec 28th).

“[L]ook at sin as an offense against a holy God, instead of a personal defeat. It is only as we see His holiness, His absolute purity and moral hatred of sin, that we will be gripped by the awfulness of sin against the Holy God” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p20).

“Why has God revealed Himself in Jesus? To demonstrate the exceeding hatefulness of sin, and to show that nothing short of such sacrifice could remove it and be consistent with the glory of the divine nature and the honor of the divine government. Each sin, then, is a blow struck at this transcendent truth. If we avert our eye from it, sin appears a trifle; it can be looked at without indignation, tampered with without fear, committed without hesitation, persisted in without remorse, confessed without sorrow. But when divine justice is seen, requiring the very heart’s blood of God’s only Son in order to satisfy its infinite requirements, how fearful sin against this holy Lord God becomes! Cultivate a constant, ardent thirst for holiness” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, July 24th).

“God does not require a perfect, sinless life to have fellowship with Him, but He does require that we be serious about holiness, that we grieve over sin in our lives instead of justifying it, and that we earnestly pursue holiness as a way of life” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p36).

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PEW SITTERS

When brought up in a Christian family and taught morality, sin doesn’t make such an impact. It gets watered down to: “churchgoers don’t have sin problems and non-churchgoers do.” They are bad and need to be saved, thus the emphasis is on evangelism—getting people into the church. Sin is so much in the background and not considered that scripture addressing sin is looked over in favor of the “Great Commission.”

This is probably one of the main reasons that the generation that is big on evangelism sees the next generation not interested in evangelizing even themselves. To them, their parent’s religion seems just another way of being bigoted.

“It is not opposition of the world that most endangers the church of Christ. It is the evil cherished in the heart of believers that works their most grievous disaster and most surely retards the progress of God’s cause. There is no surer way of weakening spirituality than by cherishing envy, suspicion, faultfinding, and evil surmising” Ellen G. White (ref#331, p549).

“[A] believer may lead a fairly normal Christian life on the outside while wrestling with a steady barrage of sinful thoughts on the inside: lust, envy, greed, hatred, apathy, etc. I see about 65 percent of all Christians living at this level of spiritual conflict” Neil T. Anderson (ref#90, p107).

“[H]ow many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud—just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend—woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life” John Piper (ref#2, p119).

“[W]e do not just have to submit and resign ourselves in order to be made perfect. [I]f I am a child of God, God has started to work in me. He will go on, and He will bring it to perfection. But He does so by opening my mind and understanding; He reveals sin to me; He tells me to put these things into practice, to press on and to strive; and He gives the final assurance that if I confess my sin He is faithful and just to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness . . .” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#211, p80-81).

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COME LORD JESUS

“The babe in Bethlehem is a denial of the lie of Satan. He says, ‘I am here because God loves you.’ He has come to undo the works of the devil; He has come to contradict the lies of Satan, and His very appearing and coming . . .is in itself an undoing of the original lie—it is proof that God loves us” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p322).

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb 2:14-15 ESV).

“A human Savior was necessary, because human beings (children) are in need of a propitiatory sacrifice and a sympathetic high priest. Jesus was fully human as the ‘children’ are and as the high priest had to be. Jesus’ death, by cleansing his followers of sin, destroys the death grip of the devil and gives hope and deliverance to those who were in slavery to the fear of death. Satan’s power is not absolute, but is under the control of God, who ultimately rules over life and death. Nevertheless Satan ‘was a murderer from the beginning’. [H]e does have power to harm people to some extent. Satan has power to work in the realm of death, and to incite people into sin that leads to death. However, the emphasis is not on Satan’s power but on Christ’s triumph over Satan and over death” ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2364).

“Christ came into this world in order to conquer Satan and his kingdom and in order to introduce His own kingdom. [T]he Bible is the story of the conflict of the two kingdoms—the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#332, p 318).

“He takes hold of us one by one; He rescues and delivers us out of this world and from Satan one by one. As we believe the message of this gospel, we are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light—the kingdom of God’s dear Son. He is building up His own kingdom; he is drawing men and women unto Himself out of the world; He is going on with the work. He is in glory seated at the right hand of God, and He must reign until His enemies shall be made His footstool; He is going on until the number of the elect shall have been gathered in. And when that has happened, He will come again. He will return into this world as King and Lord, and He will finally finish the work. He will come with a mighty sword, and not only evil and sin but Satan himself and all his cohorts shall be cast into the lake of fire and will finally be banished from the sight of God for all eternity. And our guarantee of all this is the glorious fact of the Resurrection: He ‘was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil’.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref# 332, p324).