The Sermon that took MLJ to the Brink of Exhaustion

"The service over, he sat pale and exhausted on the bottom steps of the pulpit…" Iain Murray

―By Greg Jones

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones's sermon on Psalm 2, entitled "Why Do the Heathen Rage? ", is one about which there is quite a bit of historical and biographical information. It is of notable interest not only as one of Dr Lloyd-Jones's last sermons to be recorded (and his last preached in Scotland), but also because of its impact both upon those privileged to hear it and upon Dr Lloyd-Jones himself. Iain Murray comments at length about the sermon in his official biography of Dr Lloyd-Jones, published by Banner of Truth:

"The following Friday he was, as anticipated, in the pulpit of St Vincent Street Free Church, Glasgow and facing a crowded congregation. In a few personal words before he started to preach he confessed he was 'not a well man'. 'My friend, Mr. Murdoch, persuaded me to come and I thank God he has given me the health and strength to be here." ¹

Regarding the sermon itself, Murray, who was present at the service, continues:

"I cannot attempt to describe the sermon. The tape is available and should be heard by every reader of these pages. The frail, dying man was, in truth, an ambassador from heaven. Knowing the message he had to deliver, and the time he would need, I believe he tried to husband what strength he had but there was no holding back. The message took over the man and every last vestige of energy was poured out in both word and action."

Following the sermon, Murray notes that it had taken everything out of this great preacher of the gospel:

"And after that sermon he did something that I had never seen him do before. He literally, at the end, had to sink and sit on the pulpit steps - white, silent, exhausted."

While the instrument through which God heralded His message that night was not long for this world, the message itself continues to sound forth with power.

Why Do the Heathen Rage? – A Sermon on Psalm 2:1-12

Please note that introducing the audio recording is an excerpt from Iain Murray's address Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – The Latter Years where he references this sermon.

¹ Iain H. Murray, The Life of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Volume 2 (1899–1981) (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1990), 733-34.