The charge to stand in front of God’s people and faithfully deliver God’s word is a serious calling. Congregations can understand and sympathize with the sheer weight of this task. Often, however, what is missed by Christian laypeople is the mental labor of sermon preparation from which faithful sermons emerge. The Christian minister is overwhelmed with decisions during this time that he may not be prepared for through theological education alone. And an honest minister might wonder if he is doi...
Apr 05, 2025•53 min
The vocation of a minister is unique. A minister does not leave his work behind, whether late at night or on vacation. A minister is a man who is always preparing; he never frees himself from his calling because everything he does finds relevance to his work. How then does a preacher organize his life in light of this reality? What are some practices that will aid the minster in his preparation for preaching? The key factor, says Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, is for the minister to know himself. In th...
Apr 04, 2025•58 min
Fallen nature is such that human beings can seek to justify themselves before God by any means. Christian ministers know that faithful attendance on Sunday morning, while essential to Christian spiritual maturity, does not guarantee the eternal destiny of a person’s soul. A person can spend their whole life in a pew and still not have saving faith. Yet, how often do preachers neglect regular preaching of the gospel to their own congregation? In this sermon titled “Character of the Message” from ...
Apr 03, 2025•57 min
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones stood at a significant turning point in the history of homiletics. While modern preachers often assume a fluid style of preaching for the sake of modern listeners, Dr. Lloyd-Jones warned against the rising tendency for the congregation to dictate from the pulpit. What is the relationship between the pew and the pulpit? How are preachers to understand their method of preaching in light of their congregation? In this sermon titled “The Congregation” from the “Preaching and P...
Apr 02, 2025•54 min
Who is to preach? What is the call to ministry? These questions come naturally to any man who rightly feels the weight of delivering the word of God to the people of God. Can any man stand in the pulpit and preach? Are there problems with the increasing number of churches relying on lay preachers? In this lecture on the call to ministry, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones tackles this controversial topic from his series on “Preaching and Preachers”. More than this, he challenges preachers to think deeply ab...
Apr 01, 2025•58 min
How much value is there in a sermon not delivered? Clearly, the mere research and writing of a manuscript or sermon outline cannot be considered preaching. Preaching is both the sermon and the act of delivering the message, says Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. In this lecture on preaching, he focuses on the general elements preachers need to be aware of for their calling. While Dr. Lloyd-Jones avoids providing the preacher rules or regulations for preaching, he does propose a number of important traits ...
Mar 31, 2025•52 min
In this sermon titled “Form of the Sermon,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones argues that all preaching should be theological. In both evangelistic preaching and general preaching, the preacher must know both biblical theology and systematic theology; without them the preacher risks error. But while content is of utmost importance for preaching, Dr. Lloyd-Jones states, the form of the sermon is equally important. Those who rightly value content in preaching can sometimes misunderstand the value and the art...
Mar 30, 2025•54 min
What is preaching? In this sermon titled “The Sermon and Preaching,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says the preacher is the man to deliver the message from God to the people. The preacher is an ambassador for Christ. He’s not there to entertain people toward Christ. Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that preaching is a transaction where the people are given the mind of God through the written word, explained by a faithful preacher. The danger arrives when preaching is replaced by digital versions, print version...
Mar 29, 2025•57 min
In this sermon titled “No Substitute,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones opens the word of God and confronts the tendency to depreciate preaching at the expense of other forms of activity. As those who have the good news, Christians must tell the truth. Other agencies, politicians, cults, false religions, and nonprofits can do their work, but they cannot preach the gospel. They can ease the pain of the human condition, but they cannot change the heart. The primary task of the church is not to make a person...
Mar 28, 2025•56 min
After 42 years in ministry, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones proclaims the most urgent need in the church today is that of preaching. The world says it is outdated, but to Christians, it is the way God intended His word to be taught through the ages. Without question, there are things in the church that are wrong, such as traditionalism and institutionalism. However, preaching is still its primary task. In this sermon titled “Primacy of Preaching,” Dr. Lloyd-Jones identifies the key reasons why preaching ...
Mar 27, 2025•51 min
Acts 2:42-47 — In this sermon, the second of two sermons preached at the opening of Zion Evangelical Baptist Church (Rippon, England) on December 8th 1965, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses the critical importance of understanding the doctrine and true nature of the Christian church. What does an authentic, Spirit-filled Christian church look like? In this sermon examining the early church in Acts 2:42-47, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones argues that the defining mark is an insatiable desire to gather toge...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 3 min
In this sermon, the first of two sermons preached at the opening of Zion Evangelical Baptist Church (Rippon, England) on December 7th 1965, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses the critical importance of understanding the doctrine and true nature of the Christian church. He argues that many of the problems and divisions within the church stem from a lack of clarity about what the church really is and its function in the world. With the rise of the ecumenical movement and the increasing confusion in ...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 2 min
In this sobering assessment of the moral and spiritual state of the nation, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones diagnoses the root causes of societal decay in Britain and the West. In this sermon, preached in 1971 to the British Evangelical Council, he argues that the problems go far deeper than mere disobedience or "sleeping sickness," as in the 18th century. Rather, he asserts that a moral "poison" has entered the very bloodstream of society, leading to a denial of God, moral law, and the supernatural. Tra...
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 13 min
Luke 12:13-21 — In this sermon on the parable of the rich fool from Luke 12:13-21, preached on a Sunday evening to the Seventh Reformed Church in Grand Rapids (Michigan), Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones exposes the danger and tragedy of self-deception. The parable arose from a man interrupting Jesus' teaching to ask him to intervene in a family inheritance dispute. Jesus, shocked by the request, warns the man and the crowd to "beware of covetousness". He then tells the parable of a rich man who treasured...
Mar 23, 2025•46 min
