January 30, 2008

ANOTHER NEW ONE ARRIVES: Spurgeon's "Lectures to My Students"

This is one beautiful book, published ... can I say it? ... Banner-style! Here are the details; you can order it now, online, from Banner of Truth by clicking HERE.

TITLE: Lectures to My Students
AUTHOR: C.H. Spurgeon
PAGE COUNT: 928
BINDING: Clothbound
ISBN: 978-0-85151-9661
LIST PRICE: $39.00
DESCRIPTION:

While C. H. Spurgeon is still remembered as being the most popular preacher of the Victorian era, it has generally been forgotten that the influence he exercised on fellow ministers and theological students was possibly an even greater factor in his life than his own personal ministry. That he organized a college, supervised the training of some 845 students, presided at an annual conference of ministers, and regarded all this as his ‘life’s labour and delight’ are facts that are little known today.
Spurgeon’s Lectures to my Students, contain the substance of Spurgeon’s regular Friday afternoon addresses to the college students. This new complete and unabridged Banner edition, which has been newly typeset, contains all the lectures in the original first and second series, including The Minister’s Self-Watch, The Preacher’s Private Prayer, The Minister’s Fainting Fits, The Holy Spirit in Connection with our Ministry, The Need of Decision for the Truth, and On Conversion as our Aim. Also included is a third series of lectures, originally published as The Art of Illustration, which focuses on the nature, use, and sources of illustrations and anecdotes in preaching.
To make this new edition as complete as possible, the publishers have also included Spurgeon’s Commenting & Commentaries, which contains two further lectures and a fascinating and often humorously annotated catalogue of commentaries. This catalogue, compiled by Spurgeon after a review of some three to four thousand volumes, is anything but dull: calculated to produce enthusiasts for books, it also opens up a new world by its well-placed signposts to the riches of the past.

"My College lectures are colloquial, familiar, full of anecdote, and often humorous: they are purposely made so, to suit the occasion. At the end of the week, I meet the students, and find them weary with sterner studies, and I judge it best to be as lively and interesting in my prelections as I well can be. They have had their fill of classics, mathematics, and divinity, and are only in a condition to receive something which will attract and secure their attention, and fire their hearts.

The solemn work with which the Christian ministry concerns itself demands a man's all, and that all at its best. To engage in it half-heartedly is an insult to God and man. Slumber must forsake our eyelids sooner than men shall be allowed to perish. Yet we are all prone to sleep as do others, and students, among the rest, are apt to act the part of the foolish virgins; therefore have I sought to speak out my whole soul, in the hope that I might not create or foster dullness in others. May he in whose hand are the churches and their pastors bless these words to younger brethren in the ministry, and if so I shall count it more than a full reward, and shall gratefully praise the Lord."

-- C. H. Spurgeon

January 24, 2008

NEW RELEASE: John Calvin's "Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles: Chapters 1-7"

Have you all heard that NEW RELEASES are arriving at the Banner of Truth? Here's one of them!
-------------------------------
TITLE: Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles: Chapters 1-7
AUTHOR: John Calvin
PAGES: 688
TYPE: Clothbound
LIST PRICE: $36.00 (U.S. currency)
DESCRIPTION: How to answer the question ‘Is your conscience at peace?’ A reading of any or all of these forty-four extant sermons on Acts by John Calvin will help the reader determine whether his conscience is at peace or simply asleep!

Calvin’s vigorous presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its full extent shows the sixteenth-century expositor understood the ramifications of New Testament theology, just as did his mentor, the apostle Paul, who, after presenting his reasoned understanding of the meaning of Christ’s work, immediately follows it with the ‘therefore’ of consequence. Calvin mixes biblical teaching and its demands on the believer’s life together so closely that the theology and its effects cannot be easily separated. Divine judgment and mercy underlie this ‘effects theology’, and it is the sense of judgment versus the promises of and the conditions for forgiveness and acceptance that informs the reader’s conscience whether he is indeed forgiven and at peace, a member of the body of Christ.


On the other hand, the reader of the sleeping conscience, by comparison and self-examination, will be incited to awaken to a new or renewed relationship with the pressing demands of Christian ‘effects theology’. Calvin pulls no punches. If belief does not end in an increasingly Christlike character, it is as good as no belief, no theology. The reader is either at peace or asleep.


‘One wonders, after perusing any sequence of Calvin’s sermons, whether Calvin would he welcomed in many Protestant, even Presbyterian, pulpits today. Calvin is hailed for his biblical theology, but largely ignored with respect to his insistence upon the transformed-life, life-long self-abnegation demanded of genuine Christian discipleship. The motive behind his insistence arises from his acute awareness that God, after expressing his
fatherly love and gracious acceptance of the wayward, remains the uncompromising judge of all humankind, Christian or not. That awareness of judgment should, Calvin says, “make our hair stand on end” and drive us to repentance, without which there is no forgiveness.

‘It is hoped that the reader of these sermons will seek not just to confirm the sermons’ agreement with Calvinistic theology, but particularly to experience Calvin’s sincere and
profound personal response to the loving and merciful God whose Son is on the threshold of judging with finality the whole world with mercy and justice.’
—From the Translator’s Preface

John Calvin is generally thought of as the greatest theologian of the Protestant Reformation or as a gifted Bible commentator whose insights into the text of Scripture are still highly valued today. Yet it is not widely known that the greatest obligation Calvin felt was not to his fellow scholars, nor even to his students, but to the ordinary people – citizens of Geneva and persecuted refugees, shopkeepers and merchants, the young and the old – who crowded St Peter’s church no less than ten times a fortnight to listen to his sermons in French.
Calvin’s sermons have lain for too long in the shadow of his commentaries. In seeking to correct this imbalance, it should be remembered that a sermon serves a very different purpose from a commentary. While explanation and interpretation are enough for students, they are never enough for a congregation of sinners. That is why Calvin’s sermons always combine the essential elements of all true preaching – exposition, exhortation and practical application. So let the reader be warned: this volume contains lively preaching! Calvin aims to awaken the conscience and also demands life-changing action. Is it any wonder that such preaching was used by God to bring spiritual renewal on an unprecedented scale to the people and nations of sixteenth-century Europe?
============================
To purchase this book from Banner of Truth, CLICK HERE.

January 21, 2008

Book Review: "The Art of Prophesying," and Banner's Puritan Paperback Series

Thank you, Benjamin Glaser, for sharing the following:
I am a sucker for Banner of Truth Trust's Puritan Paperbacks. I find the situation surrounding the early Puritan writers and our own to quite similar. We have much to learn from their wisdom. This work by William Perkins on Preaching is dynamite text for any preacher who really wants to understand how the Scriptures interact with your preaching. Highly Recommended.

January 16, 2008

The "Puritan Reading Challenge" is GROWING!

It would seem that nearly several hundred people have now signed on for "The Puritan Reading Challenge" that Timmy Brister posted on his blog before the end of the year. As an update on his blog, he wrote, "After three days, over 100 people have signed on! I am super-excited. Also I have tallied 55 blogs plugging or blogging the challenge. Thanks to everyone who has helped get the word out! Perhaps we can see 200?!" That would be great! If you would like to accept the challenge and read a Puritan Paperback each month during 2008, CLICK HERE. He also posted a comment by Tim Keller whereby Tim wrote, "For what it’s worth, I read all but one of the books on this list during seminary and my early ministry, and they had an enormous, life-changing, ministry-shaping impact on me. A couple of them almost literally saved my life. I couldn’t recommend them more highly. I’d only add: a) Read Owen on Temptation as well as Mortification. It’s short and well worth the read. b) Consider adding Baxter’s Saints Everlasting Rest. Other than those, I’d agree that these are the best short, accessible Puritan works. A great list." Keep reading! Steve

Are You An Appreciator of Letters?

Wow. Dean over at "Life & Letters" blog certainly is one who has come to appreciate the value of reading the letters from the likes of a Samuel Rutherford, John Calvin, etc. You'll find excerpts from a number of them at his blog. The most recent one follows - indeed a challenge from Calvin that ought not be restricted to the "student of law at the University of Padua" to whom it was written. Thanks, Dean.
Steve

=============

As I understand from your letter, that it is not very long since the Lord shed the light of His gospel on you, I could not give a fitter expression of my love towards you, than by exhorting and encouraging you to daily exercises. For we see sparks of piety immediately disappear which had shone forth on many occasions; because, instead of increasing the flame, they rather extinguish what little light the Spirit of God had enkindled in them, by the empty allurements of the world, or the irregular desires of the flesh. That nothing of this kind may happen to you, you must first of all give devoted submission to the will of the Lord, and in the next place, you must fortify yourself by His sacred doctrines.


Letters from John Calvin: Selected from the Bonnet Edition
, the Banner of Truth, 1980, p. 118.

January 13, 2008

Psalm 146 ... again

This morning's read. So good. No matter how many times. God truly does nourish our souls through the reading of His Word.
Wishing you a great day with Him.
Steve
----------------------
"Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day there plans come to nothing.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them - the Lord, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord."

January 8, 2008

"Home Again, Home Again ..."

There is a Mother Goose nursery rhyme that goes,
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, dancing a jig;
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog;
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun,
Home again, home again, market is done."
While I haven't danced a jig, bought a hog or purchased a bun, I can revise the last line and say,
Home again, home again, our Hawaii trip is done!

Mornings sure are tough still; today is the first day back at my desk here at Banner of Truth in Carlisle, PA and 8:30 a.m. eastern time still feels as if it's the 3:30 a.m. Hawaii time that I'd grown used to. Wow. How do people do this?
To bring you up to date - I had a great visit and lunch with Kevin (pictured here as he takes a customer's lunch order) and his incredible staff at Covenant Books and Coffee there in Honolulu. If you visit the islands, you must stop in. And if you guess the identities of all ten(?) Puritans on his wall, he'll give you a free book. Thank you Kevin, along with Dave and Roland and Brandy and everyone else there at Covenant Books & Coffee.
My wife did an incredible job and loved working with the staff of Trinity Christian School in Kailua. And we both very much appreciate their serious desire and offer to have her work there full-time, but ...
Our trip home was blessed with an 8-hour stopover in Chicago; just enough time to be picked up by one of our "unofficially adopted sons," taken to his apartment to "crash," then join him and his wife for church followed by lunch with several other couples at another house - all before he returned us to O'Hare to continue our flight! Thanks, Mark!
Now, it's emails and messages and strategy planning and ............ I hope you are doing well (and are more awake than I am) wherever this finds you. Grace & peace to you this day.
Steve

January 4, 2008

Hawaiian Trip Update

Aloha, again. We have moved from the island of Maui to Oahu and are now enjoying the beautiful area of Kailua. Our hosts here, Trinity Presbyterian Church and Trinity Christian School have treated us like royalty. We have met so many wonderful people. Our purpose in being here, actually, is for my wife (an upper school principal and acting head of a classical Christian school) to come alongside the great staff here at the school. So, as business trips go, I happen to be the "spouse" on this one - not a bad trip to "tag along" on, huh? I heard it was 18 degrees at home yesterday; uhm ... it was warmer than that here!
:-)
I'm off to visit Covenant Books and Coffee in Honolulu now, a ministry of the Honolulu Bible Church. I happen to know that they carry a good number of Banner of Truth books. I'm looking forward to my visit.
Grace & peace.
Steve

January 3, 2008

Meet Richard Sibbes and the Puritan Paperback, "The Bruised Reed"

I'd like to direct your attention to Stephen Newell's "The Silent Holocron" blog. Stephen is an Associate Pastor at the Louisville Baptist Deaf Church where he and a group there are apparently reading "The Bruised Reed," by Richard Sibbes. Here's what Stephen wrote ... Enjoy, all - and thanks, Stephen!
----------------------------
From Stephen Newell's "The Silent Holocron" blog:
The Puritan we will be reading this month is Richard Sibbes (1577-1635). Much of the following material is taken from Meet the Puritans by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson, and The Genius of Puritanism by Peter Lewis.
Richard Sibbes was one of the most influential Puritans of his time, after William Perkins (1558-1602). He seems to have escaped the persecution by the English government that characterized the lives of many of his fellow Puritan ministers. Sibbes was known as “the heavenly Doctor” due to his godly preaching and heavenly manner of life, and his preaching and writing was extremely popular; especially the volume we will be reading this month, The Bruised Reed, and its companion, The Soul’s Conflict.
Sibbes was born at Tostock, Suffolk, which Beeke and Pederson call “the Puritan country of old England.” He was baptized as a child. He was a bibliophile; that is, he was a lover of books from an early age. His father, a wheelwright (a person who builds or repairs wheels) and a Christian himself, tried to break his son of his bookish ways by attempting to interest him in the wheelwright’s trade, but Sibbes refused, uninterested. At the age of 18 he was admitted to St. John’s College in Cambridge, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1599, a fellowship in 1601, and a Master of Arts in 1602. In 1603 Sibbes was converted through the preaching of Paul Baynes (c. 1573-1617), whom he called his “father in the gospel.” Baynes succeeded William Perkins at the Church of St. Andrews in Cambridge.
It seems Sibbes began to experience the blessings of God almost immediately following his conversion. He was ordained to the ministry in the Church of England in 1608 and the following year was chosen as one of the college preachers. In 1610 he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree and from 1611 to 1616 served as lecturer at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge. His preaching brought revival to a Cambridge which had fallen into “spiritual indifference” after the death of Perkins in 1602; and his speaking became so popular a gallery had to be built to accomodate visitors in the church. During this time, he became a major factor in the conversions of such noted Puritans as John Cotton and Hugh Peters, and was a large influence on Thomas Goodwin and John Preston, other notable Puritans.
In 1617 Sibbes went to London as a lecturer for Gray’s Inn, the largest of the four great Inns of Court (which remain to this day one of the most important centers in England for the study and practice of law). In 1626 he became master of St. Catharine’s College at Cambridge and received his Doctor of Divinity during this time. It is while here that he became known as “the heavenly Doctor.” In 1633 King Charles I offered Sibbes the charge of Holy Trinity, Cambridge. He continued to serve as preacher at Gray’s Inn, master of St. Catharine’s Hall, and vicat of Holy Trinity until his death in 1635.
Interestingly, Sibbes never married. He did, however, establish a large network of friendships that included godly ministers, noted lawyers and parliamentary leaders of the early Stuart era. He is quoted as saying, “Godly friends are walking sermons.” As a result, he wrote at least 13 introductions to the writings of his Puritan colleagues.

A Quote from Richard Sibbes

“To preach is to woo….The main scope of all [preaching] is, to allure us to the entertainment of Christ’s mild, safe, wise, victorious government.”

Synopsis of The Bruised Reed

This month’s Puritan Paperback is The Bruised Reed, authored obviously by Richard Sibbes. What follows is a brief synopsis from Meet the Puritans.
This treatise on the dejected sinner is one of the best works of its kind. In sixteen chapters, Sibbes expounds Isaiah 42:3, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” Richard Baxter said that God used the reading of this treatise to effect his own conversion. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote, “I shall never cease to be grateful to Richard Sibbes who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil….I found at that time that Richard Sibbes, who was known in London in the early seventeenth century as the ‘Heavenly Doctor Sibbes’ was an unfailing remedy….The Bruised Reed quieted, soothed, comforted, encouraged and healed me.”

Where to Buy The Bruised Reed

You can get this book from any of the links in my Books page. If you live in Louisville, you can run down to the Southern Seminary campus bookstore or, if you want it at a discount, the Christian Book Nook near the University of Louisville. If you’d like to order directly from the publisher, you may be able to take advantage of a great sale they are having at the Banner of Truth website. Just click on “Book Catalogue” to see the specials. Currently you can get 5 Puritan Paperbacks of your choice for $35. Take that opportunity to get yourself 5 months’ worth of reading in one fell swoop! See the reading schedule in the sidebar to determine which titles to purchase.
Well, that wraps up our first Puritan biography of 2008. I am now off to take a brief nap before reading another chapter of The Bruised Reed and then going to work. I pray you will take up the Puritan Challenge 2008!

OUTSIDE SOURCE BOOK REVIEW: "Raising Children God's Way" by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

BOOK REVIEWED: "Raising Children God's Way," by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
REVIEWER: Tyler Sultze at "Heart of Ezra" blog
THE REVIEW (his words, not mine): "With the Iowa caucuses being held today, it is easy to hear many messages which promote change to our society. Every presidential hopeful has an answer to what they would do in order to change society. While they say much about taxes, health care, the war on terror, international experience, and education, I have not heard one talk about parenting. What part do parents play in the fabric of society? Would things be different in the word if parents parented differently than they currently do?
Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones answers these questions and more in Raising Children God’s Way. These five sermons from Ephesians 6:1-4 compiled by Banner of Truth Trust give great insight into how parents are to raise children for the kingdom of God. Even though these sermons were given decades ago, they still are accurate with the trends of parenting today. It goes to show that God’s Word is timeless. Dr. Lloyd-Jones has given biblical precision concerning what the Lord requires from parents. When one picks this book up they will immediately see the passion and concern he has for the family.
Only 85 pages, Raising Children God’s Way is a short read, but it must be thoroughly digested. It is packed with biblical truth applied accurately to the fallen conditions of man. Those parents who are seeking to raise children who glorify God will be challenged and convicted by this book. The church thirsts for books like this, which brings the light of the Word of God to shine on the family. God has designed the family, instituted the family, and been an example to the family. We can no longer ignore the problems of parenting or seek to remedy them with anything other than the Bible.
Read a few excerpts from the book:
I believe that Christian parents and children, Christian families, have a unique opportunity of witnessing to the world at this present time by just being different. We can be true evangelists by showing this discipline, this law and order, this true relationship between parents and children. We may be the means under God’s hand of bringing many to a knowledge of the truth. Let us therefore think of it in that way.
Whether we like it or not, a breakdown in home-life will eventually lead to a breakdown everywhere.
But the tragedy of today, with its superficial thinking, is to assume that the opposite of wrong discipline is no discipline at all.
There is no more important influence in the life of a child than the influence of the home. The home is the fundamental unit of society, and children are born into a home, into a family. There you have the circle that is to be the chief influence in their lives. There is no question about that. It is the biblical teaching everywhere; and it is always in so-called civilizations were ideas concerning the home begin to deteriorate that society ultimately disintegrates.
Raising Children God’s Way is a must read for any parent. It will help shape one’s thinking around the truth of God and convince him or her of the importance of the necessity of the family. God’s design must not be forsaken and those of God’s church must uphold it for the glory of God and the testimony of Christ. Raising Children God’s Way will make your family look different than the rest of the world, but think of the opportunity it opens for the proclamation of the gospel. May the church encourage fathers and mothers to faithfully uphold the biblical standards of child rearing."
-------------------------------------------
For more information or to purchase this book, CLICK HERE.