Should the Doctrines of Grace Be Preached from the Pulpit?

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: We're recording live from Ligonier's 2021 Pittsburgh conference, and I'm joined by one of our Teaching Fellows, Dr. Steven Lawson. Dr. Lawson, should the doctrines of grace be preached from the pulpit?

DR. STEVEN LAWSON: Yes"verily, verily amen. The doctrines of grace should be preached on Sunday morning in the pulpit. Who are we to mute God? Who are we to edit God? Who are we to withhold anything that God has put into His Word? Jesus preached the doctrines of grace to His enemies. Jesus preached the doctrines of grace to the unconverted religious Pharisees of the day. Jesus preached the doctrines of grace to unbelievers. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, preached the doctrines of grace.

The doctrines of grace are to be shouted from the housetops. We are to go in the highways and the byways and make known the full counsel of God. It is really only human wisdom that would say, "Well, we withhold the doctrines of grace. We'll save it for a mid-week service, or we'll save it for a Sunday night service or small group discipleship. But on Sunday morning, we don't need to rock the boat." Listen, the boat needs to be rocked. And the doctrines of grace are intentionally intended to humble man, and to magnify God and His glory and His sovereignty and His grace.

So the idea that you would withhold the doctrines of grace from anyone, that's your idea. That's not God's idea. If God's put something in the Bible, you'd better preach it. And there is coming a day when we will stand before the Lord"every preacher will stand before the Lord on the last day. And James 3:1 says, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing as such, we shall incur a stricter judgment." And there's a stricter accountability for the man of God. Did you disclose everything that God put into His Word? And if the answer is no"that you have withheld that truth"I would not want to be standing in your shoes on the last day and try to give a feeble excuse to God for why what He put in His Word you did not preach.

I'll say one more thing. Where the doctrines of grace are found in the Bible, they're not hidden at the end of books in the Bible. They're not put in obscure places, tucked away towards the end of books in the Bible. You find the doctrines of grace 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, or 6. They are front-loaded. You can't even get into books in the New Testament without being immediately confronted with the truth of the doctrines of grace. That presupposes how well the early church was taught the doctrines of grace that it could just be brought up in the second or third verse of so many epistles. It was Christianity 101. It was kindergarten theology. It was entry-level doctrine for the early church. So the idea that you would hold back the doctrines of grace runs contrary to even the way the Scripture presents the doctrines of grace and where the Scripture presents the doctrines of grace.

So, to answer your question, we must preach the whole purpose of God, and that includes the doctrines of grace and that includes preaching it to even unbelievers, marginal church visitors. They need adult conversation from the pulpit. They need a full dose of the truth of the doctrines of grace.