Saved By Grace Alone by D Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Saved By Grace Alone, Sermons on Ezekiel 36:16-36, by D Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by the Banner of Truth Trust, paperback, 247 pages, £7.50, may be obtained from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
The 14 sermons in this book were preached in London in 1956, with the unconverted in view. The publisher emphasises “the preacher’s conviction that the whole of the Bible is God’s word for all time” a vital matter in these days when “every man [does] that which [is] right in his own eyes”.
Two further matters stand out in these sermons. One is the considerable time Dr Lloyd-Jones spent refuting contemporary ways of thinking – which were not fundamentally different from today’s thinking, except that succeeding generations have increasingly thrown off the constraints of the United Kingdom’s Christian heritage. He speaks of people “living for the moment”, who “seem to be heedless and unconcerned” about what God has to say, although it is the only source of hope. Again, “It is the depravity within us that makes us antagonists of God. It is this evil within us that makes us hate the law of God and the biblical teaching about holiness.” This warning note is absolutely necessary, particularly in an age such as this when God’s authority is so much rejected almost everywhere.
The second matter is a call to repentance and faith. One has to say, however, that to express the gospel to all and sundry in these terms, “God sent His Son into the world to die for you and for your sins”,2 does not reflect Scripture. No preacher can be sure that Christ died for every sinner before him. Yet Dr Lloyd-Jones speaks elsewhere of “the people who had been given” to Christ, and that “God gave Him a certain work to do with respect to them”,3 which indicates belief in a definite atonement.
The title of the book has been taken from the title of the last sermon in it. There Dr Lloyd-Jones emphasised that “the Christian message always, everywhere, displays the glory of God”. But the gospel “offers to undo all the consequences of the fall”, and he specifies the need for forgiveness, and the power and pollution of sin. In drawing to a conclusion, he states that God’s way of salvation “is one which has so been designed that no flesh should glory in His presence”, and so the Christian confesses “that it is God’s work”.
Apart from the point made in the third paragraph, the sermons in this volume, though preached over 60 years ago, speak appropriately to the needs of sinners today.
2Italics have been added by the reviewer.
3D Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son, Hodder & Stoughton, 1996, p 219.