The axe laid to the root

1999 is the centenary of the birth of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It is our intention to print something each month from his published work in chronological order.
This is a sermon preached at Sandfields in Aberavon on September 20 1931. It is difficult to make an extract of what is a balanced whole, but this analysis of man's problem is taken from the sermon. The text is: 'And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees' (Luke 3.9).

It is perhaps common ground as between the moderns and the gospel that things are not right with man as he is at present. It is granted that the world is full of things which are wrong and sinful, but the cleavage becomes evident at once when we compare the ways in which the moderns and the gospel face that situation.
There is a deep conviction that man himself, as it were, is all right but that he is the victim of his surroundings. This faith in mankind is endless and boundless. It is firmly believed that man can put himself right, and that if he is given but a little encouragement along these lines, he will soon proceed to do so. Hence all the emphasis during the past 50 years on education and social reform. My charge against all that is not so much that it is entirely wrong and that it has not been dealing with the problem which it recognises. My charge is rather that it has been so superficial and so general as to miss entirely the real source of the trouble which is deeper down. This is precisely what the gospel deals with in applying the axe to the root of the trees, in its view of man in general.

Excuses

It has known all along that mankind has tried to excuse itself by blaming such things as circumstances and surroundings. It knows that that was the favourite trick of the children of Israel of old - they were always blaming something or somebody for all their troubles. Yet nothing is more remarkable in the history of Israel than the fact that that they were more prone and given to sin when things were going well, and only turned to God when things were going against them. The real trouble with man is not that he is the unwilling victim of his circumstances and surroundings, not that he is an idealist ever craving for the best and highest, who is for ever being thwarted and hindered by the evil world; the real trouble with him is he likes sin, enjoys iniquity and craves for things that he knows to be illicit. It was in paradise that Adam fell; it was in Canaan, not in Egypt, that Israel sank to the deepest depth of idolatry and enmity against God; it was the Messiah, the Son of God, that the ancient world crucified. It is in spite of all the reforms and improvements of the last century, all the increase in knowledge and culture, that this present generation is one of the most godless and pagan that this world has ever seen. The tree must be judged by the fruit it has produced. Is it not time that the axe was laid to the root of the trees and we really begin to face ourselves honestly?

What condemns me

But there is a better way in which we can state the same truth and it is, in a sense, the whole difference between Judaism and the gospel, the whole difference between the modern view of man and the Christian view of man and his sin. The non-Christian view just looks at the sins themselves and is anxious to try and put an end to the sins alone. It tries to put an end to wars for that reason. It cannot see, as the gospel would have us see, that the real trouble is not merely that we actually commit the sins, but that we should ever have desired to do so. The non-Christian view is content and happy and pleased with itself as long as it does not commit the sin; what causes the Christian heart to bleed and to break is that he should even covet. It is not the mere act of sin; but that I should desire to do it, that I should derive some fiendish, devilish pleasure in doing it! That is the real trouble. Our very nature is wrong. It is not only that the outside world tempts me and attracts me. That I could understand and see without breaking my heart. What condemns me is there is something within me that responds to it all, and indeed do so readily and gladly, something that says: 'Amen' - so be it - something that lusts and craves to go after it! That is our problem and it is shown us by the gospel alone, which probes to the depths and examines and applies the axe to the very roots.
It reveals us to ourselves as we really are; it shows our nature to be so rotten, so vile; it lays bare the roots and shows clearly that their state is so unhealthy and diseased that no mere clipping and dealing with the branches, no mere application of superficial remedies will avail; the change must be radical and fundamental. The only hope for mankind is actually to be born again and have a completely and entirely new start and beginning - a new nature, new roots. The men of today say that they are tired of sentiment and slop, that they believe in realism. They have given up religion because they regard it as a form of dope with its emotionalism. They want facts and reality.
Yet they reject the only gospel that gives them facts, facts about themselves and their real state and nature.

An extract from a sermon preached in 1931 on the root of man's problem

Excuses

What condemns me

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