Category: Tolle Lege

Readability:  1

Length:  179 pgs

Authors:  C.J. Mahaney, Craig Cabaniss, Bob Kauflin, Dave Harvey,  and Jeff Pursewell

Worldliness is comprised of six chapters written by members of the Sovereign Grace team and edited by C.J. Mahaney.  They cover worldliness in relation to the media, music, stuff, and clothes.  (Ladies there is an appendix on modesty which you can view here.  Using it would go a long way to serving your brothers in Christ.)

This little book is packed with conviction, and grace.  It is gracious conviction.  I am worldly.  Now I am better equipped to see it and battle it.  I plead with you – read it!

Today, the greatest challenge facing American evangelicals is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.

The greater our difference from the world, the more true our testimony for Christ – and the more potent our witness against sin.

Jesus Christ is most important.  We must fight worldliness because it dulls our affections for Christ and distracts our attention from Christ.  Worldliness is so serious because Christ is so glorious.

Jerry Bridges is a gospel doctor.  I always exit his books feeling convicted of my sins and encouraged in the gospel.  The Pursuit of Holiness is his classic work, it does this perhaps better than any.  Early on Jerry identifies three basic problem areas in realtion to holiness.  I give you these as a teaser.

Our first problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own “victory” over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God.

God wants us to walk in obedience—not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward self. This may seem to be merely splitting hairs over semantics, but there is a subtle, self-centered attitude at the root of many of our difficulties with sin. Until we face this attitude and deal with it, we will not consistently walk in holiness.

This is not to say God doesn’t want us to experience victory, but rather to emphasize that victory is a byproduct of obedience. As we concentrate on living an obedient, holy life, we will certainly experience the joy of victory over sin.

Our second problem is that we have misunderstood “living by faith” (Galatians 2:20) to mean that no effort at holiness is required on our part. In fact, sometimes we have even suggested that any effort on our part is “of the flesh.”

Our third problem is that we do not take some sin seriously.  We have mentally categorized sins into that which is unacceptable and that which may be tolerated a bit.

Are we willing to call sin “sin” not because it is big or little, but because God’s law forbids it? We cannot categorize sin if we are to live a life of holiness. God will not let us get away with that kind of attitude.

Readability (1-3):  2

Length:   1128 pgs

Author:  Arnold Dallimore

D.A. Carson in a talk “The Scholar as Pastor” said the following about the author of this work,

This is the time, I think, to recognize that God assigns hugely different gifts, so that one of the things this evening must not do is give the impression that there is only one legitimate path to working out pastoral and scholarly vocations. Arnold Dallimore was a Baptist pastor who took theological training with my Dad. His only degree, his terminal degree, was a B.Th. For forty years he served one church in the small Ontario town of Cottam. Nevertheless he also set himself the task of mastering material on George Whitefield. It became a hobby, a summer challenge, a life goal. He traveled frequently to England, ransacked archives, found material that no one had ever used before, and wrote his magnificent two-volume biography of Whitefield. Few books make me weep, but on occasion that biography did. For all of its technical competence and heavy documentation, it made me pray, more than once, “O God, do it again!” But no one insists that every pastor has the intellectual gift and long-term stamina to do the research and writing that that magnificent project entailed.

I thank God for Dallimore’s years of quiet toil over this masterful biography.  And I hope his prayer concerning the book be heard by our Almighty God.

Nevertheless, this book goes forth with a mission. It is written with the profound conviction that the paramount need of the twentieth century is a mighty evangelical revival such as that which was experienced two hundred years ago. Thus, I have sought to show what were the doctrines used of God in the eighteenth-century Revival, and to display the extraordinary fervour which characterized the men whom God raised up in that blessed work. Yea, this book is written in the desire—perhaps in a measure of inner certainty—that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more bring into being His special instruments of revival, that He will again raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake’, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labour and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness ‘signs and wonders following’ in the transformation of multitudes of human lives.

Indeed, this book goes forth with the earnest prayer that, amidst the rampant iniquity and glaring apostasy of the twentieth century God will use it toward the raising up of such men and toward the granting of a mighty revival such as was witnessed two hundred years ago.

In hopes that your appetite may be whetted to know the great evangelist I offer you only one quotation from his own lips that should be sufficient to stir affection toward this humble servant.  In response to requests to start his own party or denomination he replied:

Let my name be forgotten, let me be trodden under the feet of all men, if Jesus may thereby be glorified. I care not who is uppermost. I know my place, even to be servant of all.

Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus may be promoted.

I want to bring souls, not to a party… but to a sense of their undone condition by nature, and to true faith in Jesus Christ.

Readability :  3

Length:  742 pgs

Author:  John Frame

Currently there are three volumes in John Frame’s ‘Theology of Lordship’ series.  I had read excerpts and so many great reviews that while at the Gospel Coalition Conference this year I purchased all three at a great price ($51 instead of retail $115.97 for all three).  The Doctrine of God is the first of the works that I have read and I was not disappointed.  The work often fed my mind and warmed my heart with our big God.  The theme that runs through the book is that central to God is Lordship.  He is the Sovereign Lord of creation and the covenant.  He has all authority, all power and is present with man as Covenant Lord.

Frame’s theology though rich and deep is not hard to read nor burdened with technical jargon.  It is a college level read for the serious student.  It is well worth thirty minutes a day for approximately four months.

The first thing, and in once sense the only thing, we need to know about God is that he is Lord.  Surely no name, no description of God is more central to Scripture than this.

God is the supremely relevant one.  Without him, nothing else could exist or function.  Without him, there could be no meaning in life.

Readability :  1

Length:  133 pp

Author:  Tim Keller

This is my favorite Tim Keller work by far (He has only written three titles, so far, but this is still a huge compliment as all three are superb).  Thie book pairs well with an earlier one, The Reason for God.  Keller originally wrote The Reason for God with unbelievers in mind and The Prodigal God for believers, but he admits that this work will benefit both.  Keller has often spoke about preaching against legalism to libertines so that they will realize that the ‘Christianity’ they rejected is not Christianity.  Preaching against legalism helps libertines to see exactly what the gospel is.  This book does that masterfully.  Both elder and younger brothers are confronted with the glory of the gospel in this powerful little book.  It is now my go to book for persons who are lost.

[O]ne of the signs that you may not grasp the unique radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain you do.

The elder brother is not losing the father’s love in spite of his goodness, but because of it.  It is not his sins that create the barrier between him and his father, it’s the pride he has in his moral record; it’s not his wrongdoing but his righteousness that is keeping him from sharing the feast of his father.

The gospel is therefore not just the ABC’s of the Christian life, but the A to Z of the Christian life.  Our problems arise largely because we don’t continually return to the gospel to work it in and live it out.

Readability (1-3):  1

Length:  202 pgs

Author:  Mark Dever and Paul Alexander

There is an ocean of contemporary books being written about the church.  They are an ocean.  They are ever changing, never steady, constantly fluctuating.  If things appear calm from the surface there is either turbulence underneath, or a storm approaching.  In this ocean of pragmatic, novel, faddish, and often unbiblical approaches to church there are a few solid islands to set your feet on, islands that are grounded and steady.  Mark Dever is one such Island.  If someone were to ask me who was a good contemporary author to read on the church, I would first think of Mark Dever.  Mark’s concept is very simple and sadly radical to the western church – that is the Word of God which should shape our church.  Here are the first six paragraphs of the introduction.

What are we building?

It would be patently stupid to start construction on a building without first knowing what kind of building we plan to construct. An apartment complex is different from an office complex, which is different still from a restaurant. They all have different blueprints, different kinds of rooms, different materials, uses, and shapes. So the process of building will be different, depending on what kind of structure we’re planning to build.

The same goes for building a church. A church is not a Fortune 500 company. It’s not simply another nonprofit organization, nor is it a social club. In fact, a healthy church is unlike any organization that man has ever devised, because man didn’t devise it.

It only makes sense, then, for us to revisit God’s Word to figure out what exactly He wants us to be building. Only then will we understand how to go about building it. Negligence here will result in both temporal and eternal futility. Temporally, a church is a spiritually heavy thing to build, and it is designed for heavy relational use. It requires the strongest materials, and those materials must be placed in the correct, load-bearing positions specified on the biblical blueprint so that structural integrity is built in. No matter how beautiful the facade, our structure will crumble if we build on a sandy foundation or with shoddy materials.

Eternally, our work will withstand the fire of the last day only if we build with the “gold, silver, precious stones” specified on the biblical blueprint (1 Cor. 3:12). Building without that blueprint will virtually guarantee that we will build with the cheaper and more abundant resources of “wood, hay, straw,” all of which will burn in the end (vv.

13-15). Ignoring God’s plan for the church and replacing it with your own will ensure the eternal futility of your work. Here at the outset, then, it is critical to reflect biblically on this foundational question: What is a local church?

Fundamentally, God intends the local church to be a corporate display of His glory and wisdom, both to unbelievers and to unseen spiritual powers (John 13:34-35; Eph. 3:10-11). More specifically, we are a corporate dwelling place for God’s Spirit (Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Cor. 3:16-17), the organic body of Christ in which He magnifies His glory (Acts 9:4; 1 Corinthians 12). The Greek word for church is ekklēsia, a gathering or congregating of people. The church is God’s vehicle for displaying His glory to His creation.

The uniqueness of the church is her message—the Gospel. The church is the only institution entrusted by God with the message of repentance of sins and belief in Jesus Christ for forgiveness. That Gospel is visualized in the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both instituted by Christ. The distinguishing marks of the church, then, are the right preaching of this Gospel and the right administration of the biblical ordinances that dramatize it.

Readability:  1

Length:  122 pgs

Author:  Kevin DeYoung

I loved this book.  It is worth it for its modern Puritan-esque title alone: Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will or How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc.  Pastorally it is so useable; this will probably be my go to book for persons who come to me wrestling with the will of God for their life for years to come.  I won’t say much more about the book, the quotations should be enough to glean the big idea.

[W]e should stop thinking of God’s will like a corn maze, or a tight-rope, or a bull’s eye, or a choose-your-own-adventure novel.

[W]hen we look carefully at the instances of special revelation in the book of Acts – visions, angels, audible voices, promptings, etc. – we notice  one very important and consistent fact.  The extraordinary means of guidance were not sought.  I don’t deny that God can still speak to us in direct surprising ways.  Of course, it must be tested against scripture, but I believe God can still give visions.  The Point is that these extraordinary means in the New Testament are just that – extra-ordinary.

In short, God’s will is that you and I get happy and holy in Jesus.

 

So go marry someone, provided you’re equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it’s not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God’s sake start making some decisions in your life. Don’t wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God’s will, so just go out and do something.

Readability (1-3):  2

Length:  219 pgs

Author:  R.C. Sproul

I have yet to write one of these ‘reviews’ on a book I am not reading for the first time, perhaps this is the first because I was moved to worship again as wonderfully as when the book was first cracked.  Although Sproul can do nothing but fall desperately short of the grandeur of his topic he writes superbly and as a master teacher.  Weighty, deep theological truths are taught in an incredibly understandable way.  This book easily glides to the top of the most impactful books I have read.  If you are not joining us for the NRBC this month as we discuss this book I strongly encourage you to read it. 

Ministers are noteworthy of their calling.  All preachers are vulnerable to the charge of hypocrisy.  In fact, the more faithful preachers are to the Word of God in their preaching, the more liable they are to the charge of hypocrisy.  Why?  Because the more faithful people are to the Word of God, the higher the message is that they will preach.  The higher the message, the further they will be from obeying it themselves.

I cringe inside when I speak in churches about the holiness of God. I can anticipate the responses of the people. They leave the sanctuary convinced that they have just been in the presence of a holy man. Because they hear me preach about holiness, they assume I must be as holy as the message I preach. That’s when I want to cry, “Woe is me.

It’s dangerous to assume that because a person is drawn to holiness in his study that he is thereby a holy man. There is irony here. I am sure that the reason I have a deep hunger to learn of the holiness of God is precisely because I am not holy. I am a profane man – a man who spends more time out of the temple than in it. But I have had just enough taste of the majesty of God to want more. I know what it means to be a forgiven man and what it means to be sent on a mission. My soul cries for more. More soul needs more.

Readability:  3

Length:  248 pp

Author:  David Wells

Beginning in 1993 David Wells began writing a series of what would become four books that would rattle the evangelical world.  These four titles, No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue, and Above all Earthly Pow’rs, have recently been condensed and updated in his newest work The Courage to Be Protestant.  A stout critique of contemporary evangelicalism, this more accessible version is not light, but needed reading.  It is still serious reading, but more readable.  I am glad to see the material presented in a way I can more readily recommend.

Most of his arguments are deeply developed so I would encourage you against reacting against the quotations below.  I share them only to poke you towards reading it for yourself and discovering them.

Emergents, too, are standing outside the house that Ockenga, Henry, Graham, Packer, Stott, Lloyd-Jones, and Schaffer built in that earlier generation.  The difference is that they know they are standing outside the house, whereas the seeker-sensitives, the marketers, still imagine they are living inside it.

If the postmodern world is going to be engaged successfully, it will have to be at this point.  A soft, shapeless Christianity ready to adapt to any worldview may enjoy initial success, but it will soon be overtaken and lose its interest.  The problem with all such adaptations is that those outside the faith soon see that they can reap Christian benefits on purely secular grounds without paying whatever small price is being asked for the adapted version of this faith.

…it is important to remember that culture does not give the church its agenda.  All it gives the church is its context.  The church’s belief and mission come from the Word of God.  They do not come from the culture either thorough attraction to it or alienation from it.  It is not the culture that determines the church’s priorities.  It is not the (post)modern culture that should be telling it what to think.  The principle here is sola Scriptura, not sola cultura.

The postwar resurgence of evangelical believing in the West gained a great deal of strength from the fact that its many churches and organizations could work together around commonly held beliefs.  Centrally, these were the authority of Scripture and the necessity of the cross.  The core was narrow, in the sense that diversity around belief was allowed, but it was deep.  With the passing of the years, however, the core began to disintegrate and certainly, has been losing its depth.  It has become very shallow.

Without the holiness of God, sin has no meaning and grace has no point.  God’s holiness gives to the one its definition, and to the other its greatness.

Readability (1-3):  2

Length:  284 pgs

Author:  Ralph Venning

This is not a book for everyone, but for those who have grown to love the depth and warmth of the Puritans I highly recommend it.  It’s not that the book is highly technical, nor is the language completely alien to ours (I think the Puritan Paperback version has been gently edited).  This book can require discipline simply because like most of the Puritans the extent of the treatment is so thorough that you may get lost in the subtle arguments.  However, if you are up to the challenge, this book is deeply soul nourishing.  I am always thankful for an author who can help me see the bane of my soul more clearly and inversely appreciate my Savior more truly.

…as God is holy, all holy, only holy, altogether holy, and always holy, so sin is sinful, all sinful, only sinful, altogether sinful, and always sinful (Genesis 6.5). In my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing (Romans 7.18). As in God there is no evil, so in sin there is no good. God is the chiefest of goods and sin is the chiefest of evils. As no good can be compared with God for goodness, so no evil can be compared with sin for evil.

In short, sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, the contempt of his love…

To comment on this briefly, it is as if sinners should say to God in the day of judgment, Lord have mercy upon us! Have mercy upon you! says God. No, I will have no mercy on you. There was a time when you might have had mercy without judgment, but now you will have judgment without mercy. Depart! Depart! If they should then beg and say, Lord, if we must depart, let it be from thy throne of judgment but not from thee. No, says the Lord, depart from me; depart from my presence in which is joy. Depart and go to Hell. Lord, they say, seeing we must be gone, bless us before we go so that thy blessing may be upon us. Oh no, says God, go with a curse; depart, ye cursed. Oh Lord, if we must go from thee, let us not go into the place of torment, but appoint some place, if not of pleasure, then of ease. No, depart into fire, burning and tormenting flames. Oh Lord, if into fire, let it be only for a little while; let the fire soon be out or us soon out of it, for who can dwell in everlasting burnings? No, neither you nor the fire shall know an end; be gone into everlasting fire. Lord, then let it be long before we go there. No, depart immediately; the sentence shall be immediately put in execution. Ah! Lord! let us at least have good company who will pity us though they cannot help us. No, you shall have none but tormenting devils; those whom you obeyed when they were tempters you shall be with as tormentors. What misery sin has brought on man! to bring him to hear this dreadful doom!

By this we see that no wicked man cares for sin’s wages. Surely that work cannot be good for which the wages are so bad that no man cares to receive them…

Sin promises like a God but pays like a devil.

To be merciful to sin is to be cruel to yourself…