Christian's Library: Suggested Principal Books (2003)

Introduction to Adult Sunday School and Upcoming Study

0:01 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, September 14th, 2003, in the Adult Sunday School class at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let me just say a word about where we are in our adult class. As you were informed last week, we're in a period of transition. God willing, two weeks from today, we will take up our study in the Gospel, not in the Gospel, but in the book of Acts, a portion of God's Word that some call with tongue-in-cheek, 2 Luke, because it is, in a very real sense, Luke's second treatise that rounds out and completes his first.

0:45 And we will be using the Let's Study Acts series of books in this study. So if you've not purchased your copy of Let's Study Acts from the bookstore, we urge you to do so. Thank you. Thank you.

0:59 Thank you, Pastor Carlson, to read the introduction. And I think Pastor Carlson said the first chapter. I may be wrong. Is Pastor Carlson here?

1:06 He's been struggling. Pardon? Yes. Yes.

1:09 What is it? Chapter 1? Okay. 1 and 2.

1:13 All right.

1:16 Okay. All right. So do your homework. All right.

1:19 He's given you the direction. And what I want to do this morning, primarily with this time, since you've received the handout, you already know, is to give some pastoral guidance. With respect to the establishment of a good working-home library and some broader counsel regarding the use and place of books in our lives and in the life of our families. But before I do, I want to take five to seven minutes to do something entirely different.

Exhortation on the Seriousness of Corporate Worship

1:53 And since I get few opportunities to lead the class, I hope you will indulge me that liberty. I was impressed afresh with this very vital principle concerning which I remind you as the Lord's people periodically that you, as God's people, and what you do in this place when you come to worship, you are the validation or the invalidation of what is preached from this pulpit. You are the validation or the invalidation of what is preached from this pulpit. If the message preached from this pulpit is real, then you, the people of God, are to be the embodiment of that message.

2:37 And when the unconverted come among us, what ought they to see? And I made it my prayer that this is what they would see and sense among you, the Lord's people, even this morning. Number one, that you have a conscience about the seriousness of God's worship. So you come here promptly.

2:57 You sit as people prepared to have serious dealings with the true, living, exalted, majestic God of heaven and of earth. And you have no idea what that means to a total stranger coming among us. I cannot count the times throughout the years when people who have eventually been either converted or having been converted have ended up among us as members have said. The first thing that struck them that there was something different about this place was the way you, the people of God, came in.

3:31 You came in promptly, took your places, and were obviously preparing yourselves to have real dealings with the living God. You validated the message long before I had an opportunity to give it. And I urge you to remember that and to abound yet more and more. Secondly, I urge you, in spite of how you may feel on a damp, 100% humidity day, or anything else that may impinge upon your alertness and your sense of physical and mental and psychological and emotional energy, determine that from the very outset of the call to worship and the opening prayer to the final Amen, if no one else is fully engaged,

4:16 you are going to be fully engaged. You are going to make it evident that you are seeking, albeit imperfectly, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And again, I can't tell you how many times people have said it was the way the people obviously turned to their Bibles when we were going to have the consecutive reading and were engaged in following the Word of God. The way they opened their hymn books and sang with gusto.

4:50 These were the things that validated that we're not here to play church. We are here to have real heart dealings with the living God. So be fully engaged. Your attention from the outset.

5:04 Your whole-hearted singing. Your audible and hearty Amens. At the conclusion of the prayers, people then sense, hey, the preacher's not performing. The congregation is praying.

5:21 And their Amen is the validation of that engagement. And then your undistracted engagement with the preacher. So that when there are little touches of unplanned humor, the smile is on your face. You don't have that blank look, that stare of a cow.

5:38 I don't know what else to call it. A cow has the most unimpassioned, blank look of any creature on the face of God's earth. You ever looked into the face of a cow? Don't be the face.

5:49 Some of you are like that when I'm preaching. And I want to say, hey, cow face, get with it. Get in. We're doing things and saying things that ought to be registering on your face.

5:59 And you've got to look at the cow. You can't read it. It's not sad. It's not glad.

6:04 It's not mad. It ain't nothing. It's just a cow face. No cow faces.

6:10 People who come among us, if they look around, should see, here's engagement. People's hearts in the singing, in the praying, in the preaching. Undistracted, whole-souled engagement. And then my final exhortation.

6:24 At the end of the service, be consciously aware of visitors among us and be graciously aggressive to go out to them and greet them. Sir, I don't think I've seen you before. Oh, I've been here six times. Well, it's my fault that I haven't greeted you up till now.

6:40 And your name is? Be willing to eat a little crow. And we need to cultivate that gracious aggressiveness in going out to the unconverted so that when they leave, they not only sense, here's a people who came obviously ready and committed to have dealings with God. They weren't playing church.

6:58 They were engaged in every facet of the worship and ministry. But these are people that are real. They love people. They love people.

7:06 And they showed expressions of love to me. You may not have barely enough food to go around for your own family. Just tell them. Say, hey, you got anywhere to go to lunch?

7:14 No? Well, you mind we put a little water in the soup? You mind we cut the slices of meat a little thinner? You're welcome to get your thin slice with the rest of the family.

7:22 Invite them over. Ask questions. Who they are. How come they came?

7:28 What brought them here? I find that a very simple question. And, sir, how is it that you heard about us? Very unthreatening question.

7:37 You'll find ways that are consistent with who you are. Well, that's my little homily. I had hoped to get it in about seven minutes, and I just about did it. And I urge you as the Lord's people to ever keep these things in mind.

Purpose and Audience for Book Recommendations

7:50 Now, totally switching gears, we come for the rest of our time for 45 minutes to the Christians' lives, and we'll be right back after this. I'm going to read that opening paragraph. I know you can read it, but I want to read it. The list of recommended books is not intended to be a comprehensive list.

8:07 Rather, from time to time, I, Pastor A.N. Martin, conduct an adult class during which I have given the selected recommendation of some of the books presently carried by Trinity Book Service. The purpose of this particular session is to give pastoral guidance and counsel with respect to the principles of the book.

8:26 Council with respect to reading material to the following groups within our congregation. Number one, for those who are relatively new among us, in order to acquaint them with books that ought to be part of a good, growing family library, regardless of the presence that should be the presence or ages of the children within that family. In other words, a good family library has nothing to do with whether or not you've got kids. Whether kids are in your family or not, you ought to have a good, growing family library. Number two, for every child of God who's serious

9:03 about his or her growth in grace and recognizes the place of good reading material in pursuit of that growth. And here I want to pause and say, I'm fully conscious that we are becoming increasingly an audio and visually addicted society. That's a part of reality. But I trust if we're going to grow in grace, we must not become part of that addiction. We must resist it

9:33 with all of our might that we believe that there is something in the printed page that cannot, cannot be replaced by what we merely listen to. I have tapes in my car. I rarely am going anywhere. I've listened to all 12 tapes of the Southern Family Conference, all of them in my car. I've listened to,

9:57 uh, another two to three tapes of a preacher who wanted us to evaluate his preaching. I'm all the time listening to tapes, so I'm not again the audio means of communicating God's truth. And there is a place for the visual. I'm not ready to give it the place so many give to the visual, and that for good, I believe, and biblical reasons. But suffice it to say, we must resist

10:21 this addiction to merely audio and visual means of communication, and we must be readers if we are to be growing Christians. And so, pastorally, I want to help and encourage you by this list of books. Thirdly, for those who are seeking to lead family worship in an interesting, edifying, realistic way, recognizing the different ages and capacities of the children while they're still at home. And that's a constant struggle. And the head

10:51 of any household who is committed to leading family worship that is interesting, edifying, and realistic has a job on his hands. Just when you think you got it all together, the kids have entered another stage and age and areas of concern and need, and we've got to adjust continually. And then thirdly, for those, I'm sorry, fourthly, for every child of God who is serious about his evangelistic privileges and responsibilities and who desires to have materials that will help him in pursuit of that crucial privilege and responsibility. I hope each one of us has a deep desire to be used of God as a witness for our Lord Jesus Christ. In spite of

11:35 all the abuses, and many of us have seen many of them buttonholing people in an insensitive way, not engaging people as people, making it evident that we love them as people. We see them as a potential notch in our rifle of a soul to be one to Christ. We've seen that nonsense, and in our reaction against it, we must be careful. We should not overreact and cease to have a passionate desire to be a verbal witness to the truth and power of the Gospel and to be armed with materials that can help us and that can be used in communicating the Gospel to others. Remember the pendulum swings swiftest through its center

12:20 point and is stationary at both this extremes, right? The pendulum is stationary at both of these extremes. Then the pendulum does its perfect job, and it is also pentru. Remember this pendulum is stationary in both its extremes. It has been working at both the middle part of the body,

Category 1: Basic Home Library of Biblical Knowledge

12:28 the chest, and the back. But when it gets to the heel and the heel in the lower part, the pendulum goes to the heel. That's the moment when it gets to the tip of the head, and, of course, it's not thể. That's the moment that a woman can do something with her old self, but she's not here gathers momentum and it is swiftest through the center of its arc and it's stationary here that's the problem sin has created with us over here we swing over here and god would have us hold to the tensions of truth in every facet of our christian lives all right now we come to the specific categories a basic home library of biblical knowledge we would urge you to have at least one good commentary on the whole bible such as the six volumes of matthew henry or the three volumes of matthew pool and if you ask well pastor why do you go way way way back to matthew

13:09 henry or matthew pool and the answer is because they wrote those commentaries with families and earnest christians in mind not scholars who were going to preach sermons but ordinary believers who want to know what the bible was teaching with a view you to how it should impact their lives if you have never read the introduction that matthew henry has to his own commentary as to his goals you must read it and when you've read it you said man with those goals this thing has got to be my companion to help me to understand the word of god with a view to assimilating it into life and to practice so that when there's a question about

13:53 a given passage you can say well let's go see what matthew henry has to say and if you have read it you can reset about it and you can go pull the appropriate volume off look it up read it for yourself and then translate it down to the ages of your children or when they get to the place where they're old enough to grasp it directly read it for them or to them and then secondly a strong's or a young's exhaustive concordance and the basic difference between the two of them is this strong's concordance has a number system that enables the student to see the different greek and hebrew words that are used in the book of matthew henry and the other words that are used in the book of matthew henry and the other words that are used in the book of matthew henry and the other words that are used the english word may be for example uh in one of

14:31 the words in my sermon this morning let the wicked forsake his way i use strong's concordance and you will look up forsake and then you will see the different words in hebrew and greek that are used for forsake the i remember the number it's one of those nice round numbers was 5800 the hebrew word well you can see that that hebrew word is used in other contexts and you get a feel for how the holy spirit has used it but that other times another hebrew word is used for forsake so they are obviously not identical they may be synonymous whereas young's concordance will take

15:09 the hebrew words for forsake and put them all together and list the text and then the other hebrew word for forsake and list them all together so it's called the analytical concordance he does some of the shifting out and reorganizing the text and then the other hebrew word for forsake and list them all together and list them all together so it's called the analytical concordance he does the numbers for you and then if you want a smaller concordance crudence as a young christian i remember this little ditty young's for the young strong's for the strong and crudence for the crude it's been sticking in my brain for 52 years how much validity there is i don't know but i just picked out something from my old brain and and threw it out to you for whatever it's worth but

15:52 you do have to have a good concordance i can remember as a young christian i remember the question wanting to know the basics of my christian experience and sitting at the dining room table was the only place at that time where i could spread out anything and looking up the words repentance and faith and and though i was surrounded in a context where evangelicals didn't preach repentance and and in my early christian experience very little i always preached repentance because as a baby christian just a few months old in the lord as a 17 year old kid or just a turning 18 i had seen the many passages where repentance was used in conjunction with the

16:35 gospel so we would urge you to have as part of your basic home library a strong's or young's exhaustive concordance and then thirdly survey of the bible by william hendrickson this will give you an idea of the overall thrust and background to the various books of the bible what is called biblical introduction in theological terms is giving the materials about date and authorship and and literary genre is this book primarily a prophecy or is it poetry uh what what is the kind of literature we're dealing with those things that will help you in your understanding of the bible when you come if you're uh reading in your

17:18 own devotions and you want to know well what were the circumstances in which isaiah preached the opening passages tell us that it was in the you reigned of such and such a king as such and such kings that he prophesied but what were the circumstances to which the prophet is speaking and just a few minutes with that kind of a book can greatly help you even in your own devotional reading to understand and to assimilate the word of god so we would urge you to get the survey of the bible by hendrickson and then moody's atlas of bible lands god has worked out redemption in the real stuff of real history on real

17:57 terra firma in real geographical settings where was ur of the caldes and when abraham leaves to go to another where was he going to was it a 15 mile journey what was it well this is where a bible atlas will be of tremendous help to you in order to get fixed in your mind uh when you're reading the gospels and you read that jesus came to the feasts at jerusalem and then he went back to nazareth well it was nazareth around the corner uh three miles away where was nazareth and when you read he went to the other side of the lake well where was he and what was the other side of the lake it gives you a sense of

18:36 of spatial relationships and the atlas this particular one has good uh interesting full color uh pictures in it as well and this is a vital tool in general biblical knowledge and then we would urge you to get zondervan's pictorial bible dictionary all the proper nouns of the bible are in a good bible dictionary so if you want to know who in the world was hezekiah you look up hezekiah and get a lovely little synopsis of king hezekiah you want to know about josiah you want to know about some other lesser known character you use your bible dictionary

19:20 and some of the terms that are in the bible itself redemption propitiation redemption you will find those in a good bible dictionary and i have used the zondervan pictorial bible dictionary edited by meryl tenney for decades i could wish it were upgraded it would have the nice lovely pictures that one of the other bible dictionaries that we carry has but when i looked at one of the crucial theological terms i was quite disturbed at how inadequate it was whereas those terms in the zondervan pictorial bible dictionary are opened up in a very biblically accurate way. And then this little helpful book,

20:04 a dictionary of theological terms written in straightforward English. And this is a very helpful little book. You want to look up people, you hear people talk about, well, this is the ecumenical movement. What is the ecumenical movement?

20:20 This is theological terms. They may not necessarily be biblical terms, but they are used in theological jargon. What is the laity? People talk about the clergy and the laity.

20:34 What does the word laity mean? I'm just opening up at random. The regulative principle. You hear people say, we worship respecting the regulative principle.

20:43 What in the world is that? Regulative principle. And then other biblical terms. Repentance.

Category 2: General Edification for the Serious Christian (Theological)

20:49 Regeneration. Very helpful little volume. Just 100, not even 130 pages, but it will round out a good basic home library of biblical knowledge. Then we come to the second category for general edification for the serious Christian, both theological subset A and the Christian life subset B.

21:15 And here again, remember, we're not talking about exhausted. We're not talking about books that we're encouraging you to read from kiver to kiver and to kiver also. But, books that will be there on your shelf as a tool. And at the top of the list, the new systematic theology by Robert Raymond, a reference work for students in seminary and Bible colleges.

21:38 I don't know a finer textbook to read from kiver to kiver. But suppose in your devotions, one of your kids raised the question, Dad, what about people who've never heard the gospel? Well, one of our own men sent a note to me knowing we were going to put this down as a reference work. And gave the page numbers, 1,000, as I recall, 78 or 79 to 1,083, in which Dr. Raymond addresses that very question.

22:08 What about those who've never heard the gospel? Will they go to hell as well? Well, you as a father could then take that section, read it, absorb it, master the scriptures, and sit down with your family as a competent theologian. Because at the end, at the end of the day, dear men and women, all of life's questions are theological.

22:32 And we must, to some degree, be theologians. We must understand the total witness of God concerning any one given aspect of his revealed truth. Maybe your kids are struggling with how can Jesus be both God and man in one person, and yet the two not mixed? Well, you'd go to the section on the person of Christ where that issue is dealt with.

22:56 And so we would urge you, as a basic home library, to have Dr. Raymond's systematic theology there as a reference work, and then outlines of theology by A. A. Hodge, a reference work.

23:10 And it's just that. It's outlines of the major theological matters starting with the doctrine of scripture and doctrine of God and working through to the doctrine of last things. And there you will find some of the key texts that have borne, the weight of historic Christian orthodoxy through the centuries, and that will be helpful to you in your own understanding and in your monitoring the growing understanding of your family members. Then, since nothing is more crucial than the doctrine of salvation, who saves and how does he save?

23:47 We would urge you, not as a reference work, but as a work to be mastered, redemption accomplished and applied by John Murray. It's a paperback. It's a paperback. It's of only about a hundred and, I think, twenty pages altogether.

23:59 I didn't look at it, but it's a book that someone knew my esteem for it and had it covered for me from a paperback into beautiful leather. And it has accompanied me all over the world. And I find just periodically reading and re-reading his treatment of those basic issues of soteriology, that is, the doctrine of salvation. And when you think of those key terms of regeneration, of calling, of justification, of adoption, there is nothing that will help you to grasp the biblical truth more firmly and clearly in my present understanding than this book by Murray.

24:40 And then, Knowing God by J.I. Packer is a very helpful book in opening up these theological concepts in a very warm, pastoral, personal, experiential way. His treatment, his treatment of adoption is one of the finest treatments of that oft-neglected truth.

25:01 And then, The Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson is also a book that treats of the doctrine of salvation in a little different order. But again, Dr. Ferguson is a model of biblical substance presented in lucid clarity and simplicity. Biblical substance.

25:22 It's solid stuff. There's not a fold of, a fluff in the whole thing. And yet, it's not the kind of thing where you've got to read it and scratch your head. I make as a test of a popular reader, do I have to read the sentence twice to grasp what he's saying?

25:38 I make that a test. When I read a book, does the author carry me into the train of his thoughts without my having to read and reread his sentences? Now, it may be I'm reading a work so profound that I need to go back to let it sink in a second, third, fourth, or fifth time. That's entirely different from sitting there saying, what in the world is he saying?

26:00 What's the subject? What's the predicate? What's the point? Well, you will find both Packer and Dr. Ferguson,

26:06 in my judgment, are the two most lucid writers in our generation on profound theological issues. So we urge you to get that book. And then, Grace Unknown by R.C. Sproul.

26:19 I have not read it. It's in its entirety. It's highly recommended, but it also treats of what we call the doctrines of grace. And then a lovely little booklet by Jack Seaton called The Five Points of Calvinism.

26:32 In my judgment, again, the finest little distilled essence of what is meant by total depravity, what is meant by unconditional election, what is meant by definite or efficacious, often called limited atonement, what is meant by irresistible grace, and what is meant by the perseverance of the saints. Those great pillars of truth that form the backbone of what we believe and we preach as the way of God's salvation, most helpful. And then, since we are a confessional church, a modern exposition of the 1689 Confession by Sam Waldron, when you have questions about a particular section in the Confession, you will find Sam Waldron

27:17 very helpfully outlining it, expounding it. And then, since so many of the books we carry in our book service, and many of the authors I've recommended here, Robert Raymond, A. A. Hodge, John Murray, J. I. Packer,

27:33 Sinclair Ferguson, R. C. Sproul, those are the authors who've recommended. They are all pedobaptists.

27:40 That is, they believe that it's the will of God that children be recognized as members of Christ's Church and, as such, be sprinkled in their infancy if there is at least one believing, confessing believer in the family. And so that we might not be infected with what we regard to be a serious departure from the biblical doctrine of the Church and from the biblical doctrine of baptism, we've recommended A String of Pearls Unstrung by Fred Malone. What happened to Fred Malone, he came out of a broad evangelical background. He came into the richness of what we call Reformed Theology.

28:20 I'm using it here. You won't hear me use that terminology from the pulpit months on, sometimes, I guess, years on end. But in this setting, I trust I can use it with safety. And like so many, he saw through the shallowness of the compartmentalizing of God's truth and saw the organic unity of God's covenantal administrations and he swallowed the pedobaptist perspectives and practice.

28:47 However, as he continued to study and sought to implement and practice pedobaptism, as a minister, his conscience began more and more to trouble him. And so his string of pearls became unstrung. And this is a helpful, gracious, it's not a nasty thing, it's not consigning J.I. Packer

29:11 and Robert Raymond to hell as miserable Roman Catholics who are sprinkling babies because they think they'll get them to heaven by so to know. But it is a very helpful polemic against pedobaptism and pedobaptism and we're putting it in this area of the theological that we as the people of God might be well immunized against being taken in out of respect and love and honor to these great men, many of whom we would say were not worthy to loose their shoes. Well then, moving on very quickly, the Christian life. And here I should say, and I got away from my notes, this list is not just mine.

Category 2: General Edification for the Serious Christian (Christian Life)

29:51 This is compiled by all of the elders. They had their input. Along with Mr. Davies.

29:57 And this was very, very difficult. Where do we start and where do we end? And we wanted to recommend books that are available in our bookstore. Now we're not saying the only books worthy of reading are the ones in our bookstore.

30:10 That would be cultic. No, we're not saying that. But we have to draw the line somewhere and we didn't want to recommend books that you'd end up scurrying around where we're going to get them. Some of you don't have friends that are on the internet and go on to Amazon.com

30:23 or CB, Christian book discount place, et cetera. So here we go. These are ones that some of us have found tremendously helpful pastorally. Some of these, I've put them on the recommended list because they have done pastoral work for me again and again.

30:43 When people have come struggling with an aspect of the Christian life, I've loaned them my copy of Ryle's Holiness or Ryle's Practical Religion or Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' Spiritual Discipline, Depression. I've seen these books used of God to do pastoral work. So it's not theoretical.

31:03 Now others may have found other books and so we do not question the validity but here we go. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. It is said that Charles Spurgeon read it through at least a hundred times in his lifetime.

31:19 Every time I read it through I see things I couldn't see before because my own experience was too limited. Each time you read it through, as you grow in grace, you say, aha, that's what I went through. That's what I faced. Old Bunyan had it right.

31:32 So please, if you don't have John Bunyan's Pilgrim as your companion, make him your companion. And then Holiness by J.C. Ryle, many of you will know, is just individual sermons on crucial issues of the Christian life.

31:48 You don't need to read from beginning to end. You can reach, dip down into any one of those essays or sermons and find them complete in themselves. And some of those essays are masterful on some of the most basic issues of the Christian life. And the same is true with Ryle's Practical Religion.

32:08 And then The Thought of God by Maurice Roberts is the kind of book that does do just that. It expands your thoughts of God, would be helpful to use in conjunction with your own devotions to read a half a chapter or a whole chapter to stimulate worship and praise and penitence for our low views of God. And then Trusting God by Jerry Bridges has been greatly used of God. We've tried to include some more contemporary writers where they have proven themselves.

32:40 And certainly Jerry Bridges' book Trusting God fits that description and we heartily recommend it. And then the abridged editions of John Owen's writings and there are a couple of levels in those abridged editions. For any who have not done any reading of Owen, this would be level two or three, level three. Owen himself is level one.

33:04 Level two are the Banner of Truth editions by a man by the name of Mr. Law. And then level three are these reductions of Owen even to a simpler, less complex outline and summary of what he said. Different authors have done this.

33:24 I'm reading one of them right now. No, I'm reading one from level number two and finding it very helpful. Owen is a constant companion in my own reading and there's no excuse for me not to take Owen at level one. But for many of you that would be difficult time-wise and the old English and then I think Packer said he writes in ponderous Ciceronian English.

33:52 And his Latinized mind comes through in the way he structures himself. And I think it's very important that you read the sentences and Owen is one that many times even as someone as astute as Dr. Packer says when it gets, the going gets rough with Owen I find that reading him out loud usually unlocks the sentence. And you will, you'll say where is the subject and the predicate and you'll find one sentence going 15, 16, 18 lines.

34:17 So it's rough going but it's worth it if you can hack it. But these reductions of Owen and let me say this and it has stuck with me since I heard it. A few months ago Dr. Sinclair Ferguson was speaking at a pastor's conference and he said the older I get the less enamored I am with contemporary books.

34:37 He said I don't buy contemporary books. He said before I die I want to master my three John's. John Calvin, John Owen and John Murray. And that was a fresh stimulus to me to master those three John's who are proven, proven guides.

34:56 John Calvin, John Owen and John Murray. And then spiritual depression by Martin Lloyd Jones. His chapter on feelings is worth the price of the book. So many Christians get hung up because they don't know what to do with this matter of their feelings.

35:14 And when they don't feel saved then they reason they must not be saved. And how in the world did they get off that treadmill? Well that chapter is masterful. It is so helpful and other chapters as well.

35:26 And then I've mentioned the Lord's Day by Joseph Piper. The whole matter of the benefit and blessing and principles to guide our conduct on the Lord's Day. Owen said that the Lord's Day is the hedge around all of the other institutions of God. Now you think about that.

35:49 When we begin to get careless about the Lord's Day there is then an erosion of all the other institutions of God. And so we must be well grounded and persuaded of the sanctity of the Lord's Day. And then I did not put this last group but the other men insisted on it. The Banner of Truth booklets such as Living the Christian Life Be Yours Truly and A Life of Principled Obedience.

36:15 God has given them a wide usefulness. I don't know how many printings they've gone through and how many languages some of them are now have been printed in other languages. And others have found them helpful and so they are placed here at the direction of my fellow elders. Now we hasten on a basic library for family worship.

Category 3: Basic Library for Family Worship

36:36 And here I've divided it into two categories. The biblical basis for family worship. Some of you come out of a background where family worship is like something from Mars. We have had pastors who've come to our pastor's conference who said they never knew what family worship was till they got into one of our homes during the pastor's conference.

36:56 There's been such an erosion of family worship as a part of the life of an ordinary healthy Christian. And so if you have questions about the biblical basis we commend thoughts on family worship by James W. Alexander and family worship by Kerry I would imagine you pronounce it Tacek. And so these may be helpful to you and then practical helps.

37:23 And you'll notice we've split it into just two categories. Very young children and all others. That's the category we have in the way we configure attendance at our church. Up to age three in the nursery.

37:36 From age three on in the sanctuary. So we don't have junior age, pre-teens, teens and all these other divisions because to do so would undermine the theology of family worship. Long before children can cognitively grasp the majority of the content of family worship, they are learning from the climate and the atmosphere the tremendous importance of family worship. And that prepares them for the importance and their behavior in the worship of God's gathered people.

38:14 So that's why that division is deliberate. It is theological and it reflects the structure and life of our church. And I don't need to say anything about the things listed there I think they are all self-explanatory. If you don't know what those various books are you can go down and have a look at them in the bookstore on a Wednesday night or sometime during the week.

38:38 The last one listed is the matter of a children's catechism. And God willing, when there's need for a plug-in in the adult class sometime in the next months. It's been a long time since I've given a lecture on the benefits of catechizing ourselves and our families. It's been a long time since I've given a lecture on the benefits of catechizing ourselves and our families.

38:55 It's been a long time since I've given a lecture on the benefits of catechizing ourselves and our families. It's been a long time since I've given a lecture on the benefits of catechizing ourselves and our families. And I want to do that. Suffice it to say for now this is crucial.

39:01 Long before again kids can understand a lot of things. Who made you? God made me. What else did God make?

39:09 God made all things. Why did God make you and all things? For his own glory. How can you glorify God by loving him and doing what he commands?

39:18 Where do you learn how to love and obey him? In the Bible alone. Who wrote the Bible? Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit.

39:27 Who were our first parents? Adam and Eve. Of what were our first parents made? God made the body of Adam out of the ground and formed Eve from the body of Adam.

39:36 What else did God give Adam and Eve besides bodies? He gave them souls that can never die. Do you have a soul? Yes, I have a soul that can never die.

39:44 How do you know that you have a soul? Because the Bible tells me so. Okay? Now I'm not showing off.

39:50 I'm just spurting because with my little granddaughter, night after night, that poor little pagan child, getting these truths into her mind and into her conscience, trusting that God will eventually put them into her heart. Take the time to catechize your children and then all others, hymn books. We recommend our own Trinity hymn book, but not exclusively. You come across some good hymn books with solid hymns.

40:22 Singing ought to be a part of your family. Family worship. If there's something I would do differently, if I had to do it all over again, I'd give a higher place to singing in family worship. I can't say this to you without feeling afresh, my own deficiency in that area in the rearing of my children.

40:41 And then the other matters I think are quite clear. What books are helpful? These that I've listed, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels by Ryle, a nice little, little selection of scripture. You can have the kids read the scripture that's printed right in the book.

40:59 And then you as the dad can read through the main headings are always in italics, very well organized, not complex. Ryle picks out the major principles, easy to make it the springboard for discussion. These have proven to be a great help to many of our families over the years. Likewise, Proverbs by Charles Bridges, taking a proverb a day and using this for several years or maybe using it for six months and switching to something else.

41:29 A lot of cross references. You can get the family involved. All right, Johnny, you look up this verse. How does that relate to this proverb?

41:36 What's the connection between the two? It can be a good tool for eliciting discussion in family worship. And then the entire Let's Study series by the Banner of Truth for older children and adults. My wife and I have been using these for a long time now.

41:52 And we find them tremendous. They're tremendously profitable. And then William Jay's Morning and Evening. And then the Wellin series of commentaries.

42:01 And then the newly published works by Nancy Ganz for an in-depth study of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. Then fourth category helps for fulfilling our evangelistic privilege and mandate. At the top of the list is J.I. Packer's work, Evangelism

Category 4: Helps for Evangelistic Privilege and Mandate

42:18 and the Sovereignty of God, written way back in the 50s. But there is no finer. Theological statement of the evangelistic mandate. Excellent work.

42:29 And if you've not read it, we urge you to get it, to read it, to pray it in, and then to not to tell the truth, tell the truth. I had originally put to tell the truth. And one of my elders corrected me. There's no to.

42:44 It is tell the truth by Will Metzger. No finer how-to book written from a sound theological perspective by someone who has. Who has engaged in the work of evangelism in a concentrated way for many years. God has given to Will Metzger, who is a personal friend, an unusual opportunity in campus evangelism.

43:06 He's worked at it for decades from a thoroughly biblical and reformed perspective. And in that sense, he's earned the right to write on the subject. Whenever I get a how-to book, I always want to ask the question, what right does this man have to write this book? I don't want to if I'm a young doctor reading the book on how to take out a liver which someone ain't never took out a liver.

43:32 I don't want to read a book on the perfect nephroctomy. That's the removal of a kidney. Someone that ain't never removed a kidney. And I don't want to read a book on how-to with someone who is not an accomplished, recognized practitioner in the area where he's telling me how to do it.

43:51 And I don't think that's wrong. I think it's right. What are your credentials to tell me how to do it? So let me tell you.

43:57 And I have some books that are based on the history and history of the world. I don't want to go into detail, but I want to make sure that we understand what they mean to me and why I believe it. This is a good example of a good example of a good example of a good example of solitude. And I'd like you all to understand that there's a great deal of a lot of time that we need to spend so hard to write about it.

44:27 But while I'm writing this book, I'm As I let him talk and tell me about his problems for about 45 minutes, looking for the opportunity to start pressing home biblical issues, that opportunity came, and I had prepared, sitting there on the chair, ultimate questions by Blanchard and then my little booklet, Bad Record, Bad Heart. And I said to him, Todd, if you're serious, read those books, look up the scriptures, and then when you're ready to talk about those issues, you call me, and we'll have our second session.

45:01 Left him the directions to our church with our new little brochure, Chuck, and it was a lovely opportunity to give that to him, and I trust that we'll see him here, sitting under the word of God. So those materials of Blanchard, all the way up to his...

45:19 books, if you get a real thoughtful person, you may want to give them some of his books. Does God Believe in Atheists? I think that's the title. And then a larger book, Answering the Question of Evil in the World, taking off from the 9-11 two years ago.

45:38 And then the tracts in our tract rack, most of those are evangelistic tracts, and again, many of us have reacted against people. That put these goofy tracts in place of a tip, they put something that looks like money, and get the waitress mad. You've seen them, maybe you haven't, maybe you've been spared some of the things that I've seen. But you don't want to be boorish, but judiciously, prayerfully, these can be instruments of God to put in the hands of others, and we would commend them to you.

Category 5: Books of Church History and Biography

46:13 Well, in the remaining six minutes, I want to say a word about books of church history. This is a biography which ought to be included in any Christian's home library, whether one is a new believer or well advanced in the knowledge of Christ. We're not the first ones to read our Bibles and confess Christ, and every Christian ought to have at least some basic appreciation of what God has done from the days of the Apostles down to the present hour to fulfill the promise of Christ. I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

46:49 And nothing in one volume, to my knowledge, is of better help in that direction than Sketches of Church History by S.M. Houghton. It was my privilege to know Mr. Houghton, one of the most humble, gracious, godly men that I've met in my pilgrimage.

47:08 And he was a meticulous historian about historical accuracy. He's the man that edited all of Ian Murray's works, checked out all of his...

47:19 ...references, and Ian has told me personally there are times when he was confident he had his facts right.

47:25 And Mr. Houghton would humbly say, well, Ian, you ought to check such and such a volume of such and such a book long out of print on page 72 in section 4. I think you will find you are on shaky grounds. The man was like a walking encyclopedia.

47:42 And this will be very helpful to you, to your family. And then we've listed some of those that, again, will give you...

47:47 ...some of those that, again, will give you...

47:49 ...an appreciation of those men who have been unusually used of God in days past...

47:55 ...whose names have become household words in evangelical circles...

48:00 ...and to understand something of their lives and how they were used of God.

48:05 And so we've listed the life of John Bunyan, should be B-U-N-Y-A-N, not O-N, not Bunyan, but Bunyan. And I take full responsibility for not picking that up in the proofing of this. And the others are listed. And then I want to highlight, you'll notice about three quarters of the way down...

48:25 ...the entire biographical series printed by youth with a mission.

48:30 These are not written by people who are necessarily sympathetic to our doctrinal distinctives. But they are written by people who are clearly committed to historic evangelical Christianity. And I've said these books come in several reading levels and are a must for our children...

48:48 ...that they may be acquainted with the great names of those whom God has used throughout the centuries in the work of the gospel.

48:56 My grandson Landon and I have a standing agreement. I get him three at a time, and when he's done reading them, he calls Grandpa and starts politicking for the next three. And these have been a great blessing to him. They will be to your children and you as adults.

49:10 If you've just not been acquainted with any of these, you may not want to do it in front of your kids. It might be...

49:18 ...eating too much crow, but when they look and read their children's biographies so that you get a feel...

49:24 ...and this is going to awaken a hunger in many of you to get the more substantial biographies...

49:29 ...because it is in biography that we see the truth fleshed out in real lives.

Concluding Practical Suggestions for Reading

49:35 And this can stir us. Our own devotion can give us a fresh sense of what it is to serve Christ with passion and with earnestness. Concluding practical suggestions in my two remaining minutes. Be modest and realistic in your reading goals.

49:55 You look at a thing like this, and some of you who aren't readers say, where do I begin? Well, begin with a modest goal. I am going to start reading five pages a day in one of the books recommended here. Five pages.

50:11 That's all. Just five pages. And it's amazing. I have worked through whole sets of Puritan works.

50:18 Not reduced, but the real stuff. By whacking away five pages a day. Five pages a day. Drip, drip, drip.

50:27 Be realistic in your goals. And then my second counsel is let the acquisition of a good home library influence all your gift giving and your gift receiving occasions. This is a suggestion from Mr. Davids, and I thought it was excellent.

50:43 You young men, young women, what do you want for your birthday? I want Robert Raymond's Systematic Theology. Yeah, that's going to cost 30 bucks, 25 bucks. Well, let that count for two birthdays.

50:56 I want a good theological book on my shelf. I want a Young's Concordance. I want a set of three biographies. Christmastime is coming.

51:07 What are you going to give that's going to be worth something beyond January? Well, go to your list. Begin to let this acquisition of a good library influence both your gift giving and your gift receiving. And in that way, we're going to enrich one another's lives in untold ways for the rest of our pilgrimage.

Closing Prayer

51:29 Well, I'm seeking to be an example of stopping on time. And my watch is accurate to the second, and it is now coming up on 9.30 exactly. Let's pray.

51:45 Father, how rich we are. We think of those parts of the world. That don't have one verse of your word translated into their own tongue or dialect. The many places such as Pakistan that have so few books in Urdu that are of any worth, any substance.

52:06 And our God, mindful of your truth that to whom much is given, of him shall much be required. We pray you will help us to be good stewards of this wealth that is here at our fingertips. Lord, help us. Enable us to be discerning purchasers of books, discerning readers.

52:30 Help us that we may become stable, mature, useful servants of Christ by means of our reading habits. Hear us and answer us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.