Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaking on ‘phenomena’ and the centrality of Christ

July 27, 2008

Iain Murray, in his new book, Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace, gives us, among other things, this compelling look into Martyn Lloyd-Jones‘ teaching on phenomena, experiences, excitement, the Holy Spirit, and the centrality of Christ in preaching.

From page 156-157, we read:

Distractions from holding to the centrality of Christ are repeatedly to be found throughout his [Lloyd-Jones] sermons:

Beware of regarding anything as the work of the Spirit in you, no matter how striking the phenomena may be, if it has not led you to the Lord Jesus Christ … Our great enemy tries to counterfeit these things, and he can produce phenomena, but he never leads to the Lord Jesus Christ. [1] The devil turns people’s attention to phenomena, to the experiences, to the excitement. Any teaching or preaching which does not keep the Lord central and vital and overruling everything is already wrong teaching.

The lesson of Christian biography, he reminds us, is that the saints

were more concerned about holiness and about God and his love and knowledge of him than they were about the experience.

The claims of some that ‘experience of Christ’ supersedes any need for adherence to the word of God, and orthodox belief, he strongly denied.

I am not interested in the experience of a man who is still wrong in his doctrine. The test of the baptism with the Spirit is that it leads a man to the truth and to an understanding of the truth.

It is to the word that the Spirit of truth directs attention. Thus, he would often say, revival comes,

while God’s people are met together and the word is being expounded and unfolded. That is the way in which it comes. And again let me make this clear; the expositions need not be about the Holy Spirit, or about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Many friends need to be reminded of this at the present time.

Irrespective of what a man may say about a vision or an experience that he has had, if the teaching cannot be found in Scripture, or be reconciled, with Scripture, it is to be rejected as false teaching. Even though the remainder of his teaching may be scriptural and accurate, he is in error and he must not be follwed.