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Romans - exposition of chapter 14.1-17

Liberty and conscience

Alluring Lloyd-Jones

ROMANS
Exposition of chapter 14.1-17
Liberty and conscience
By D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Banner of Truth. 274 pages. £16.50
ISBN 0 85151 849 4

This book is of special interest because it is the final contribution to the 14-volume series of the sermons on Romans preached by Dr. Lloyd-Jones on Friday evenings at Westminster Chapel.

The last sermon finishes part way through verse 17 for, after preaching it on Friday evening March 1 1968 at the age of 68, he was diagnosed the following weekend with a condition that led to surgery and (two months later) to his decision to retire. It was sermon 372 in the series begun ten-and-a- half years earlier.

Probably no one else's sermons in living memory make such good and beneficial reading. Many may wonder how a preacher could sustain a long series like this. This book reveals something of the secret: every sermon shows the relationship of the particular truth or passage under consideration with the Scriptures as a whole. Scripture is carefully compared with Scripture and the hearer/reader challenged to think through important issues.

In addition to the superb exposition, this final contribution to the series is fascinating for the personal reminiscences it contains, the counsel given to young pastors - love and understand God's people and their background before instituting change - the use of special days like Christmas and Good Friday and practical pastoral issues (how, for instance, to understand drug addicts).

I tend to judge the value of a book like this on the number of notes I make of passages to which I may want to return. This book gets full marks! Here are just a few of the subjects that have been added to my index system: rules for discussion among Christians, the change from a Saturday to a Sunday by the Church, the definition and place of a good conscience, how to interpret Hebrews 6.4-6 and the place of similar warnings in the Bible against apostasy, the definition of theology (and its inseparability from worship) and the importance of appreciating the kingdom of God as the great theme of the Bible.

Those who have never read Dr. Lloyd-Jones's sermons will find this an easy and alluring introduction to them. Those who have read the earlier volumes will not be disappointed.

Derek Prime,
lives in Edinburgh where for 18 years he was pastor of Charlotte Chapel