State every doctrine
contained in God’s Word
To preach the gospel is
to state every doctrine contained in God’s Word, and to give
every truth its proper prominence. Men may preach a
part of the gospel; they may only preach one single doctrine
of it; and I would not say that a man did not preach the
gospel at all if he did but maintain the doctrine of
justification by faith - ”By grace are ye saved through
faith.” I should put him down for a gospel minister, but not
for one who preached the whole gospel.
No man can be said to preach the whole gospel of God if he
leaves it out, knowingly and intentionally, one single truth
of the blessed God. This remark of mine must be a
very cutting one, and ought to strike into the consciences
of many who make it almost a matter of principle to keep
back certain truths from the people, because they are afraid
of them. In conversation, a week or two ago, with an eminent
professor, he said to me, “Sir, we
know that we ought not to preach the doctrine of election,
because it is not calculated to convert sinners.” “But,”
said I to him, “who is the man that dares to find fault with
the truth of God? You admit, with me, that it is a truth,
and yet you say it must not be preached. I dare not have
said that thing. I should reckon it supreme arrogance to
have ventured to say that a doctrine ought not to be
preached when the all-wise God has seen fit to reveal it.
Besides, is the whole gospel intended to convert sinners?
There are some truths which God blesses to the conversion of
sinners; but are there not other portions which were
intended for the comfort of the saint? and ought not these
to be a subject of gospel ministry as well as the others?
And shall I look at one and disregard the other? No: if God
says, ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people’ if election
comforts God’s people, then must I preach it.” But I am not
quite so sure, that after all, that doctrine is not
calculated to convert sinners. For the great Jonathan
Edwards tells us, that in the greatest excitement of one of
his revivals, he preached the
sovereignty of God in the salvation or condemnation
of man, and showed that God was infinitely just if he sent
men to hell! that he was infinitely merciful if he saved
any; and that it was all of his own free grace, and he said,
“I found no doctrine caused more
thought nothing entered more deeply into the heart than the
proclamation of that truth.” The same might be said
of other doctrines. There are
certain truths in God’s word which are condemned to silence;
they, forsooth, are not to be uttered, because, according to
the theories of certain persons, looking at these doctrines,
they are not calculated to promote certain ends. But is it
for me to judge God’s truth? Am I to put his words in the
scale, and say, “This is good, and that is evil?’ Am I to
take God’s Bible, and sever it and say, “this is husk, and
this is wheat?” Am I to cast away any one truth, and say, “I
dare not preach it?” No: God forbid. Whatsoever is written
in God’s Word is written for our instruction: and the whole
of it is profitable, either for reproof, or for consolation,
or for edification in righteousness.
No truth of God’s Word ought to be
withheld, but every portion of it preached in its own proper
order.
- C. H. Spurgeon,
Preach the Gospel
