The Doctor: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Part 2

Let's finish the story of the Doctor, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. His legacy encompasses many things, but we're focusing on two things—his legacy from the pulpit and his legacy from books. I had mentioned that I taught a course surrounded by Lloyd-Jones personal library. It was a fascinating library. For one thing, it had all of his medical books. Remember, he was trained as a medical doctor and spent all of those years in school, and he had amassed quite a library of medical books. He was also interested in all sorts of sciences—in botany and astronomy and mathematics.

Lloyd-Jones also had a large collection of great Puritan works and great Reformed theological works. In fact, he was instrumental in founding the Evangelical Library, which continues to this day and houses many rare books, especially those of the Puritans. Lloyd-Jones longed for the day when the great Puritan works—leather bound, with few copies in print—would find their way to a larger audience. This eventually led him and others to found the Banner of Truth Trust in 1957. The idea of the Banner of Truth Trust was to take these great books, housed in the Evangelical Library, and publish them in affordable and accessible editions. Suddenly, in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, all of these great Puritan books became available. And they influenced a whole generation of theologians and pastors. This is a significant part of Lloyd-Jones' legacy.

The other significant piece of his legacy is the pulpit. He was known for preaching massive preaching series. One of these was a series of 260 sermons on the book of Ephesians. It started in 1954 and lasted until 1962. You can listen to these sermons online, download them, or read them in his books.

But that series was eclipsed by an even greater one. Lloyd-Jones had a practice of giving lectures on Fridays. He began doing so in 1955 on the book of Romans. Those weekly lectures went from 1955 all the way to 1968, and 360 sermons later, we have Lloyd-Jones on Romans. He published these sermons, and in total, I think there's something like 1,600 sermons of Lloyd-Jones available. But he also wrote a significant book for pastors. In 1971, he published the book Preaching and Preachers, which has helped to teach a whole generation what being a preacher is all about.