Hammer the New Man into Yourself

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

"The whole matter of putting on the new man is in essence the application of truth to ourselves. It is the most important thing that one can ever discover in the Christian life. The real secret of Christian living is to discover the art of talking to yourself. We must talk to ourselves, we must preach to ourselves, and we must take truth and apply it to ourselves, and keep on doing so. That is the putting on of the new man. We have to hammer away at ourselves until we have really convinced ourselves. In other words, this is not something that you wait for passively. If you wait until you feel like the new man it will probably never happen. We must be active in this. There is no greater snare in the Christian life than to entertain the idea of waiting until we feel better, and of then putting on the new man. On the contrary, we have got to go on telling ourselves the new man is already in us. In his Epistle to the Romans the Apostle Paul says, 'Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God' (6:11)." Darkness and Light, An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17, 191-192

A Defective Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

"...in Acts 10.  We read in verse 44 that 'While peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.'  And if your doctrine of the Holy Spirit does not include this idea of the Holy Spirit falling upon people, it is seriously, grievously defective.  This, it seems to me, has been the trouble especially during this present century, indeed almost for a hundred years.  The whole notion of the Holy Spirit falling upon people has been discountenanced and discouraged, and if you read many of the books on the Holy Spirit you will find it is not even mentioned at all, a fact which is surely one of the prime explanations of the present state of the Christian church."

Joy Unspeakable, 115-116.

A Controversial Statement

The "Doctor":

"Let us put it as plainly as that: you can be baptized with the Spirit and not show the fruit of the Spirit..." Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Joy Unspeakable: Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit, 76

Think about that for a moment.

As a Christian, whether you agree or disagree with that statement will determine the way you handle and respond to certain revival movements and certain individual people, as well as, yourself.

The Cure for the Christian's Past Sin

Feeling depressed about your past. Here is some "medication", rather, the cure from the Doctor through Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones:

"Let me sum it up in this way, therefore. You and I--and to me this is one of the great discoveries of the Christian life; I shall never forget the release which realizing this for the first time brought to me--you and I must never look at our past lives; we must never look at any sin in our past life in any way except that which leads us to praise God and to magnify His grace in christ Jesus. I challenge you to do that. If you look at your past and are depressed by it, if as a result you are feeling miserable as a Christian, you must do what Paul did. 'I was a blasphemer,' he said, but he did not stop at that. Does he then say: 'I am unworthy to be a preacher of the gospel?' In fact he says the exact opposite: 'I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful putting me into the ministry, etc.'....That is the way to look at your past. So if, you look at your past and are depressed, it means that you are listening to the devil...Why believe the devil instead of believing God? Rise up and realize the truth about yourself that all the past has gone, and you are one with Christ, and your sins have been blotted out once and for ever."

Spiritual Depression, p. 75-76