When Conviction Costs Everything: Dr. Lloyd-Jones on the Pilgrim Fathers
What would you sacrifice for truth?
In 1620, a small band of believers left everything—their homes, their livelihoods, their country—to cross a hostile ocean toward an unknown wilderness. They weren't fleeing poverty or seeking adventure. They were following conscience.
And according to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, their story poses an urgent question to Christians today.
A Message for Our Moment
In this powerful address, Dr. Lloyd-Jones draws a striking parallel between the age of the Pilgrim Fathers and our own era. Both are "great turning points in history." Both confront believers with fundamental questions about the nature of the church, the authority of Scripture, and the courage to act on conviction.
"These men took these things so seriously that they did what they did," Dr. Lloyd-Jones declares. "Are these matters vital to us?"
The Challenge That Still Confronts Us
The Pilgrims didn't separate over minor disagreements. They shared general theological agreement with those they left behind. But on matters of biblical authority, church government, and the purity of worship, they couldn't compromise. They chose the Atlantic and its terrors over staying in comfort with error.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones poses a penetrating question to modern evangelicals: If the Pilgrim Fathers were willing to endure such hardships over those issues, "are we not prepared to separate from those who are liberals in their doctrine, who deny the Christian faith and who preach actively against it?"
The Value of Looking Back
"The value of church history," Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains, "is that it not only presents us with the doctrine—and the doctrine must come first—but it also makes us concentrate on the practical application of the doctrine."
History isn't just about inspiration. It's about action. It's about learning from the errors godly men can fall into. It's about seeing principles lived out in real circumstances.
And it's about asking ourselves: What are we doing about what we believe?
Are You Ready to Face the Issues?
This sermon doesn't offer easy comfort. It offers a mirror. Dr. Lloyd-Jones delivers a series of searching questions to every Christian:
- Do we hold the same doctrines as the Pilgrim Fathers?
- Are we ready to act on our beliefs as they were?
- Are we content to say "I don't want trouble" while remaining in churches that deny the faith?
"Face the issues. Face the facts," he urges. "If you can sleep tonight in that position after hearing what you've heard about the Pilgrim Fathers, well, then I am in utter despair with respect to you."
A Call Across the Centuries
The sermon concludes with the haunting words of the old hymn:
"They climbed the steep ascent of heaven through peril, toil, and pain. O God, may grace to us be given to follow in their train."
Listen to the sermon
This sermon was delivered at a commemoration service for the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage. Dr. Lloyd-Jones shared the platform with Dr. Charles Woodbridge, himself a modern "pilgrim" who was excommunicated from the Presbyterian Church in the 1930s for standing with J. Gresham Machen in defense of biblical truth.