Under a Doctor's Care

Over the last two years, I have been been under a doctor's care. But don't worry. My doctor's name is D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones, affectionately known as "The Doctor" to those who are familiar with his life and ministry. Even though the Lord called him home in 1982, this physician of the soul has continued to minister to people's needs through his printed sermons, lectures, and audio messages.

I willingly put myself under his care beginning in September of 2005, and ever since then he has been carefully dispensing measured doses of Ephesians to me. Two years and eight volumes later, I am delighted to report that my spiritual health is markedly improved. Without a doubt, this Doctor has a God-given giftedness to make spiritual diagnoses--- and then prescribe the truth of Scripture to meet my exact need.

I have to admit that on many a morning I slugged into my study mentally drained, physically weary and spiritually discouraged (ministry has a way of doing that to a man). But as I read Ephesians bit by bit----and subjected my soul to Lloyd-Jones' expositions-- nearly every day I found myself being revived back to life. Was it God's Word that affected me most? Absolutely. Lloyd-Jones would have it no other way. But this physician of the soul knew exactly how the prescription was to be written and the medicine was to be applied. And for that I am eternally grateful.

In eight masterful volumes of Ephesians exposition, I received many worthwhile prescriptions from my Doctor friend:

"God did not send His Son into the world because mankind kept on pleading with Him to do so. Nothing in salvation is given to us by God by way of response to a request from us, nothing whatsoever! It is all and entirely and absolutely from God. He has given without being asked; He has poured it out without any request. It is indeed, in spite of us, in spite of our being enemies and aliens and rebels, in spite of our turning our backs on Him. It is in spite of all we are, and all we have done, that God has given us "the riches of His grace". --Ephesians, Vol. 1 page 177.

"We must always be extremely careful, therefore, never to say that it is our believing that saves us. Belief does not save. Faith does not save. Christ saves----Christ and His finished work. Not my belief, not my faith, not my understanding, nothing that I do----'not of yourselves', 'boasting is excluded', 'by grace through faith'....Therefore, boasting is entirely excluded, boasting of works, boasting even of faith. It must be excluded. Salvation is altogether of God." --Ephesians, Vol. 2, page 136-137.

"The best teaching in the world is useless unless the Holy Spirit takes hold of it and applies it and opens our understanding to it, and gives it a deep lodging place in our whole being." --Ephesians, Vol. 3, page 110.

"We must not put love before the truth; we are to speak the truth in love. We are not merely to speak lovingly, or simply to be nice and friendly; we are to speak the truth in love. Truth must always come first." --Ephesians, Vol. 4, page 268.

"The whole art of Christian living is to know how to talk to yourself. If you do not preach to yourself you are not a Christian. A Christian is a preacher, he preaches to himself. You start your day by telling yourself, 'Now I am the new man, I am no longer the old man; my old man has been crucified with Christ, my old man is dead, finished with, he is non-existent; I am no longer what I was. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things are becoming new. You start the new day by saying that to yourself....It is not surprising that we fail so much. We do not start the day as we should." --Ephesians, Vol. 5, page 145.

"There is no profounder way of teaching sanctification and holiness than simply to teach the doctrines concerning the being, the nature and the character of God! You do not start with man; you start with God. You do not start with yourself and your problems and needs; you start with God. You do not start with your desires, you start with the Almighty---'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty'! Is there anything that promotes sanctification and holiness as much as that?" --Ephesians, Vol. 6, page 164.

"One of the first things you have to learn in this Christian life and warfare is that, if you go wrong in your doctrine, you will go wrong in all aspects of your life." --Ephesians, Vol. 7, page 113.

"You must gird yourselves and your loins with truth. If you do not, you are defeated. And I am asserting that truth can be known, that there is an authority. It is not reason, it is not feelings, it is not the Church, any church, it is the Book called the Bible." --Ephesians, Vol. 8, page 206.

Friend, if your soul is aching--- if your mind is weary--- if your heart is discouraged--- will you let me refer you to my Doctor? His character is high, his reputation is superior, and his diagnoses are always right on target. Take my word for it, when you put yourself under the skillful care of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, you will be prescribed the pure Word of God, which is the only medicine that can truly revive the soul (Psalm 19:7).

Plus, when you visit this doctor-----you never have to wait.