This is a compilation of sermons delivered in the 1960’s. It was formerly published as two books but in this one publication contains “Prove all Things’ and “Joy Unspeakable”.
The burden and subject of the chapters is the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the need for the moving of God in the churches. Many will not be able to agree with some of the doctrinal positions the author takes but the overall message of the book cannot fail to alert the attentive reader to the place and ministry of the Spirit of God so needed in the churches of today. Along with this there are some very helpful chapters and warnings that should be standard reading for people in the charismatic churches of today. If read prayerfully these chapters alone would save many from the cul de sac’s into which many churches are wandering in their undiscerning zeal and misdirected enthusiasm. Although these were messages delivered more than forty years ago they are relevant today, especially in those chapters that lay down ways in which things happening in the churches should be tested, proved and accepted or rejected. Lloyd-Jones is always a master of analyzing and arriving at conclusions that lead to a healthy examination of our personal lives and the church life in which we participate. His exhortations are to ask, seek and knock for the Holy Spirit to be at work that spiritual awakening might come and many should be filled with the Spirit of Glory but he also advocates restraint with our zeal. He is steeped in scripture and this always comes through, also in church history, the lives of many who have gone before are quoted, these come from men and women who have themselves experienced the Holy Spirit in their lives and the life and glory He brings. Although these chapters are full of well-reasoned argument a sense of the prophetic is also present. This is a pleasing combination. Lloyd-Jones was also known as ‘the doctor’. He was originally a medical specialist but carried this expertise of diagnosis into the realms of spiritual life as he engaged in the Christian ministry under the calling of God. Having himself been part of a particular move of God’s Spirit in his first church in South Wales one of his concerns was that he never saw a spiritual move of the same kind in Westminster Chapel in London where so m any years of his ministry were carried out. Be that as it may, we can only benefit from this timely republication of these sermons and even though in certain particulars his exposition may not sit well with us, the overall messages can only stir our hearts to prayerful longing for God to refresh His churches from above and so through them move in the world.
