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Are
You Preaching the Gospel?
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
It is true that where sin abounded
grace has much more abounded; well then, "Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound yet further?" The true preaching
of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the
possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is
no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New
Testament gospel than this, that some people might misunderstand
it and mis-interpret it that it really amounts to this: that
because you are saved by grace alone, it does not really matter
at all WHAT you do, you can go on sinning all you like because
it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. That is a
very good test of gospel preaching. If my preaching of the gospel
does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the
gospel. Let me show you what I mean. If a man preaches justification
by works, no one would ever raise the question. If he says, "If
you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing sins, live
a life filled with good works, and keep this up regularly and
constantly until the end, then you will be a Christian and go
to heaven when you die." Obviously, no one will accuse a
man who preached like this of saying, "Let us continue in
sin that grace may abound." But every preacher who preached
the gospel has been accused of this! They have all been accused
of "antinomianism." I would say to all preachers: IF
YOUR PREACHING OF SALVATION HAS NOT BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD IN THAT
WAY, THEN YOU HAD BETTER EXAMINE YOUR SERMONS AGAIN, and you
had better make sure that you really ARE preaching the salvation
that is proclaimed in the New Testament to the ungodly, the sinner,
to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are
the enemies of God. There is a kind of dangerous element about
the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.
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