To know Martyn Lloyd-Jones is to read him. Hundreds of his sermons are available in print and have influenced at least two generations of preachers. With so much MLJ material available, where should one begin? Below is a guide to reading various collections of Lloyd-Jones sermons and other books about his life and ministry.
Books and sermons by Lloyd Jones
- Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Eerdmans, 1984). This is a must-read if you are preaching through the Sermon on the Mount, and it is deeply edifying reading if you want to read the Doctor regularly over an extended period (daily, three days a week for a year, and so on).
- Exposition of Ephesians (Baker, 1998). The Doctor’s lengthy sermon series on Ephesians includes some of the clearest and most pastoral teaching available on the complementary nature of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility and spiritual warfare. These 232 sermons were preached on Sunday mornings at Westminster Chapel from 1954 to 1962.
- Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure (Eerdmans, 1965). Lloyd-Jones wrote: “Christian people too often seem to be perpetually in the doldrums and too often give this appearance of unhappiness and of lack of freedom and absence of joy. There is no question at all but that this is the main reason why large numbers of people have ceased to be interested in Christianity.” This is one of the most popular Lloyd-Jones volumes and for good reason. Here, in the tradition of the Puritans he so loved, the Doctor provides expert counsel for those who are under the dark sway of melancholy.
- The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors (Banner of Truth, 2014). This volume includes addresses given at the Puritan Studies and Westminster Conferences between 1959 and 1978. It examines issues surrounding the Reformation and explores the lives of key Reformers, Puritans, and their progeny. MLJ’s work serves as an excellent intro to the Puritans and Puritanism.
- The Assurance of Our Salvation (Studies in John 17): Exploring the Depth of Jesus’s Prayer for His Own (Crossway, 2013). A rich, penetrating, verse-by-verse exploration of our Lord’s high priestly prayer.
- Life in Christ: Studies in 1 John (Crossway, 2002). This edition contains the original five volumes in one.
- The Kingdom of God (Crossway, 2010). MLJ explores the kingdom of God and shows how a citizen of that kingdom should live even while maintaining citizenship in an earthly kingdom.
- Why Does God Allow Suffering? (Crossway, 1994). Written at the outbreak of World War II, this work was originally titled Why Does God Allow War? Here, MLJ weighs the “problem of evil” on the scales of Scripture.
- Romans (Banner of Truth, 1985). This may have been Lloyd-Jones’s most cherished work. These 14 volumes contain all 366 sermons the Doctor preached from Paul’s epistle on Friday evenings at Westminster Chapel.
- Evangelistic Sermons from the Old Testament (Banner of Truth, 1996).
- Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan, 2012). This timeless work arose out of 16 lectures Lloyd-Jones delivered to students at Westminster Seminary in Philadephia in 1969.
- Revival (Crossway, 1987). A series of 24 sermons preached by Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel during the 100th Anniversary of the 1859 Revival in Wales. He considered the subject so urgent that he interrupted the series of sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians in order to preach on it.
- Great Doctrines of the Bible (Crossway, 2012). Essentially, this is a basic systematic theology taken from Lloyd-Jones’s Friday evening doctrinal series of 55 sermons.
- Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust. Hear the voice of the Doctor through hundreds of downloadable sermons.
Books about Lloyd-Jones
- Iain Murray. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years 1899-1939 (Banner of Truth, 1982). The first volume of what is simply one of the most highly regarded biographies written by an evangelical about an evangelical.
- Iain Murray. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith 1939-1981 (Banner of Truth, 1990). Volume two. In 2013, Banner published a condensed, one-volume edition of Murray’s biography that also contains new material.
- Iain Murray. Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (Banner of Truth, 2008). Murray concentrates on three key themes that relate directly to Lloyd-Jones’s ministry: the nature of true preaching, the place that full assurance of salvation should have if Christianity is to be vibrant and persuasive, and the claim that Lloyd-Jones’s understanding of the New Testament church was unnecessarily divisive.
- Tony Sargent. The Sacred Anointing: The Preaching of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Crossway, 1994). The author delves into the anointing of the Spirit that many attest came with Lloyd-Jones’s preaching.
- Eryl Davies. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: A Bitesize Biography (Evangelical Press, 2012). If you are just now discovering MLJ and want a quick read on his life and ministry, this volume in the Bitesize Biographies series is an excellent place to start.
- Christopher Catherwood. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: His Life and Relevance for the 21st Century (Crossway, forthcoming in October). This volume, written by the Doctor’s oldest grandson, represents a fresh treatment of Lloyd-Jones with an eye toward his contemporary significance.
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