Lloyd Jones, In Spirit and in Truth

  • Nick Davis
  • Aug 20, 2009
    Lloyd Jones, In Spirit and in Truth

    An email from Nick Davis with excerpt from Lloyd Jones:

    This passage is an excerpt from Lloyd Jones sermon preached on Remembrance Day in 1967, and it touched me deeply. He is not a morbid man, and also insisted on joyful Christianity. But his words add such weight to the possibilities of worship. We live in a world so full of smoke and mirrors, his words remain timeless therefore.

    "'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting' (Psalm 139:23-24).
    Now this man is getting it right. He cannot trust his own self-examination. He has realized he is a hypocrite, so he sees even examining himself is not enough. We are so subtle, and sin is so subtle with us, that we manipulate things to suit our own case. So he turns to God and says, You do it!
    I cannot trust myself. God must examine me. This teaching runs right through the book of Psalms, and the prophets have exactly the same message: 'Who among us shall dwell with the Devouring Fire?' (Isa 33:14). These are the questions that the people of God have always asked.  
    Exactly the same teaching is found in the New Testament.


    'Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near WITH A TRUE HEART in FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH' (Heb 10:19-22).
    Notice the words 'true heart'. There must not be any dishonesty in our hearts; there must be 'truth in the inward parts'. The heart must be open. And without this, whatever we may do, individually or nationally, prayer and worship are a sham, and God will not hear us. A true heart is part of worshipping God in truth.


    But we must go beyond that: the heart must also be a united heart, not a divided one. 'Unite my heart to fear thy Name' (Ps 86:11). Now again, we all know something about this 'divided heart'. David knew there were parts of him that were right, parts that were wrong, parts that desired God, parts that desired evil. Oh, the apostle Paul has put it once and forever for us when he says, in effect, in Romans 7: 'With my mind I acknowledge the truth of God's law and its rightness, and desire to live it and practice it, but I find another law in my members'. Here is the division.
    The great problem in life is how to have a united heart, how to be whole, how to be unanimous, how to bring the whole of our being and personality to this great place in which we realize that nothing is higher or greater or more wonderful than worshipping God and praying to Him. James puts this in terms of the 'double-minded man'. It is the same teaching - there can be a division, an uncertainty, in the mind as well as the desire. Is this not one of the things that curses all of us, this difficulty of uniting ourselves, bringing ourselves into oneness, into unanimity? But only then will we be in a position of truth.


    There must be no lies, nothing hidden, nothing unworthy: 'unite my heart to fear thy Name' - the whole being is involved. It is with 'all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind and all thy  strength'. Nothing is left out. It is a total allegiance to God, a total seeking of God, a total prostration of one's self in 'the presence of His Majesty', as John Wesley put it. All this is absolutely essential.
    And then this is what it all leads to: when we have realized something of what we are doing, and when we have realized what is true inside us, we come to a point in which we are humbled and contrite. Now look at the eloquent teaching you find in the Bible itself. It is the Paradox of the godly Christian life that this brokenness is what brings us immediately into the presence of God. This is directly opposite to the world's ideas. The world teaches us self-confidence, self-assurance; it gets us to take pride in ourselves, individually and nationally; in various ways it is always boosting our ego. And the more it does, of course, the farther it moves us from God. God is 'the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy' who dwells 'in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit'. Or take David. David was farthest from God when he was relying upon himself, his powers and prerogatives as king, his right to get anything he wanted, even another man's wife. But he got back into the presence of God when his heart was broken and he said, 'a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise' (Ps 51:17).


    We are not worshipping God unless we are humble, unless we are broken: this is an essential part of worshipping God in truth. And surely, is not this the very element that is most lacking in us at the present time? The trouble with us as a generation of Christian people is that we are all so healthy, we are all so happy, and it were, so glib, so easy. How many 'broken' Christians do you know? How many humbled Christians? There is a type of Christian today who has never repented, who does not know what that means, who has never been humbled in the presence of Almighty God. There is nothing more terrible that to go into the presence of God in a self-confident manner.
    Scripture is clear that this pride was the whole trouble with the Jews at the time of our Lord. It was Paul's whole trouble too. He was 'circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless' (Phil 3:3-6).
    And Paul used to go to God like that, thanking God that he was such a man. But then he realized that he had never worshipped, that that was a mockery, a sham, a form of blasphemy. That was the very essence of his conversion.


    What is the matter with the man who stands at the front of the temple, thanking God that he is not as other men are, thinking that he is pleasing God, congratulating himself in the presence of God? It is the very opposite of worshipping in truth. No one can stand in the presence of God like that. It is the OTHER man in the story who is worshipping, the poor tax collector who just gets inside the door and who is ashamed even to lift up his face to look to heaven, but beats his breast and says, 'God be merciful to me a sinner'. That is the man who goes home justified, says our Lord. Why? Because here is a man who is humble, a man who realises that he is nothing. To approach God with any kind of pride or self-satisfaction is a mockery of worship. Yet that is something of which we are all guilty. If we realize who God is, if we realize the truth about ourselves, we shall be humbled and broken.
    Have you ever felt you have no right to go to God? I do not think we have ever really been to God unless we have known that we have no right to turn to him, no right to pray. 'Who am I?' says David, in effect, at the height of his glory. (see 2 Samuel 7:18). That is worshipping in truth. It is realizing your utter nothingness and your entire dependence upon the love and the grace, the mercy and the compassion of God. He is to be approached 'with reverence and godly fear'. How much reverence and godly fear do you see today, with your bright and breezy services and everything going with a swing? My dear friends, let us come back to the Scriptures, God is to be worshipped in TRUTH. You can never worship God self-confidently, though you are a Christian. Our Lord himself prayed like this, 'Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name'.


    We come then, confessing our sins, acknowledging our unworthiness, admitting that we are not worthy of the very least of God's mercies. That is the way to pray! That is worshipping in truth."