Banner Ministers' East Coast Conference Book Recommendations

Thanks for sticking around and watching the bonus content. First off, welcome to my home. I do want to let you know up front that everybody in the family is here. I've got my three kids. My wife is right next to the camera.

We've got a puppy dog. So there may be some noise. If so, it'll be okay. So last week, very briefly, you got a glimpse of Ian Hamilton. And on the bottom of the screen, it said the Banner Book Tour. And what that is, is for first time Banner of Truth Minister's Conference attendees, they're invited into the book room and two trustees go through different books and give them recommendations.

And then Banner of Truth will offer a ridiculous discount on the books that the trustees recommend. And there were lots of them. You saw all of the men who were in that room were first time attendees and all of them got these discounts.

Fortunately for me, this was the first time that I had been at a Banner of Truth conference. And so I was a first time attendee and I capitalized on it. We're gonna get to that in a minute. But before we do, because I wasn't able to record Ian Hamilton and John Payne, who are our two trustees, giving all of their recommendations because it was very long.

And would have been difficult.

To hold the camera up that long. Instead, I got some people that I know and that I cherish, I respect to give you some recommendations for their favorite books. To wrap it all up, we'll come back here into my home because I capitalized on the first time attendee discount.

And I wanna go through and show you when we have an opportunity to spend our own money on Banner of Truth books, what is it we would buy and why? And so let me allow Chad and Anthony and John and other guys to speak for themselves and give you their recommendations.

And then we'll come back here.

The Value of Owen's Hebrews Commentary and Lloyd-Jones Biography

This is Chad Vegas. I'm the pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Bakersfield and the board chairman of Radius International. I'm here at the Banner of Truth conference. I wanna show you guys some books.

Okay. All right, let's go. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Yeah, I don't want anything to do with money. When you are talking, look at the mic. Talk to the mic.

All right.

So the first thing that I wanted to show you is the Hebrew's Commentary by Owen. It's not one that I've seen go very quickly here. It's a bit of a beast. As far as a commentary goes, it has actually seven volumes here on the table on this commentary.

But I have been preaching through Romans for the last year. I mean, sorry, Hebrews for the last year. And as I've been preaching through the book of Hebrews using Owen, what I found is every commentary that I read, after I'm done reading them, I go and read Owen and I think, why did I bother reading the other commentaries?

It exegetically, it's superb. Doctrinally, he draws out implications. Pastorally, he's incredibly helpful. It is seven volumes. It is a mountain of work to get through, but you will be greatly benefited by this commentary set.

I also wanna commend to you this biography of Martin Lloyd-Jones by Ian Murray. It's a two-volume set. This is actually the second volume. It's worth reading both of these volumes, though. This was actually important to me personally in ministry.

It was when I was reading the biography of Lloyd-Jones that I first understood how my theology is articulated in pastoral ministry. Prior to that, I didn't understand how my theology and pastoral ministry really are married together, but seeing the example in Martin Lloyd-Jones in these biographies was life-changing for me in my pastoral ministry.

Sabbath Observance and Christian Liberty

This is Mikey, a youth pastor at Sovereign Grace Church in Bakersfield. He wants to show you some resources as well.

Yeah, you following me?

I'm following you.

Okay, okay, I've just got one that I'm gonna show you.

All right.

I think that this book is not one that's gonna be recommended very often, not because it's not good, but just because it's very, very small and sits on this far side of the table. Walter Chantry's Call the Sabbath a Delight.

This is a book that impacted me within the last six months. Just the idea of the biblical Sabbath was something that I was ignorant of my entire Christian life, and then over the last year or two, it's something that I've avoided because I realized that I've been disobeying or not regarding the Sabbath in a lot of ways.

I had a lot of questions that I just didn't know how to answer, and then one of my pastors actually recommended this little book to me, and it just opens up a lot of helpful points regarding the Sabbath.

What does the New Testament say about the Sabbath? What does Jesus himself say about the Sabbath? And then, what are the areas of conscience and liberty regarding the Sabbath and how we approach it today as members of the new covenant?

So, Call the Sabbath a Delight, highly recommend it.

Spurgeon, Sovereign Grace, and Fighting Temptation

I am here with a very good friend of mine named Danny G. This is Danny G. He is a graduate of Master's Seminary, a associate pastor in

North Carolina.

North Carolina now. Danny, what books have been most influential to you?

One, I'd love to point out, it was one of the first Banner Truth books I ever read, The Forgotten Spurgeon by Ian Murray. When I had read this, I had recently come to understand the biblical doctrines of grace, how all throughout the scriptures, they testify clearly that God is sovereign in salvation, and yet as I began to understand and embrace that, there were still some loose ends that needed to be set straight in my mind, and I didn't even realize it, but in the midst of reading this book that Ian Murray wrote on Spurgeon, where he walks through several of the major controversies Spurgeon himself had to walk through, some of those loose ends were set straight by Murray, and even in the most unlikely of places, like in the footnotes where he's explaining that a fallen nature and a fallen will, they go together, that man doesn't just have a free, independent, autonomous will.

Someone's will will always act in accord with one's nature, and until God sovereignly gives someone new life, that will will never choose Christ. So reading that was so helpful for me, but even just reading Spurgeon's life, his testimony, his example of faithfulness, specifically at the end of the book, there's a chapter where it details when Spurgeon was kicked out of his Baptist union.

I'll never forget sitting in my room, reading through that chapter, coming to the end of the chapter where an eyewitness account is given of all of these men rising up, voting, and essentially, by their vote, announcing their departure from the truth, and even with that, turning from this great leader and faithful pastor, Spurgeon.

Reading that eyewitness account, I remember finishing the chapter with tears in my eyes, seeing the example of a faithful man who was faithful even when it cost him, and even when it led him virtually to have no friends in the ministry, and for me, reading that, it was good to be reminded if I'm gonna be faithful to God's word, that might be what God calls me to, to have to be faithful to stand alone.

So, Forgotten Spurgeon by Ian Murray, it's terrific. Anything by Ian Murray, but this was so helpful for me. Another, I'd love to point people to, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. Reading the Puritans is one of the best things you can do for your own Christian walk, and yet, admittedly, they can be intimidating.

Sometimes they can be hard to follow. A great entry point is Brooks on this subject. He's essentially dealing with the issue of temptation, all the different ways that we can be drawn into sin, and really, even to understand the ways that Satan draws us in, the different means by which he tries to lure us and make sin look attractive.

And if we can understand the different devices, how he tries to pull us in, we have remedies to fight against that temptation. So, I'll never forget reading this book, early in the book, Brooks says, when you're tempted, consider the way that you'll look at sin when you're lying on your deathbed and you're gonna stand before the Lord.

And he paints this picture of, when you're lying on your deathbed and soon to stand before the judgment seat, then sin will be brought forth, and that which appeared most beautiful, as sin is unrobed and sin's mask is taken off, it will appear most vile and most ugly and most heinous.

And I remember reading that and thinking, if I can but remember that is what sin is, however it comes to me, however alluring, however attractive, and even for me reading this as a young man and the different ways young men can be tempted, what a help this was in God's providence in my own life to make war against sin, to battle against it, and to protect and guard my own heart from those different temptations that come from without.

So precious remedies against Satan's devices, and that's just in like the first few chapters, first few pages, there's so much, my copy at home, so much is underlined, it's one I love to turn back to, it's so good.

You know, there's another one right over here, I would be pointing to the larger memoir and remains of Robert Murray McShane, and I just see here the memoir. I remember at the time it was my fiancee, now my wife, she bought this for me as a birthday present, and I remember reading through McShane's life, and at the time I was a young man, still am a young man, but then a more younger man, and reading about McShane, converted in his late teens, and the moment he's converted, and the moment God calls him into ministry, it was like setting a man on fire, who for the next eight, nine, 10 years gives himself zealously to God.

Reading through the memoir, seeing his zeal, seeing his love for prayer, his love for the scriptures, his heart for the lost, the humility, how he was aware of himself, aware of what tempted him, and just constantly was trying to put him down to see Christ lifted up.

So much is in this that is so good and so helpful. I remember just a little line from his has changed the way that I look at prayer. Sometimes we think about prayer, we think of it's something I need to do, it's a duty, but it's hard to work myself up to take time to pray.

He's got this little line in his diary, "'Rose early to meet him whom my soul loves. "'Who would not rise to meet with such company?'. And I remember just reading that and thinking, he's right, why wouldn't I rise early?

Why wouldn't I go away, go into the private, just to go meet with Christ? And that prayer is not even simply me just giving requests to him, but prayer is me delighting in him, me communing with him, and not even with him, but with the Father and the Spirit.

That's so good, his statements about, for every look at self, take 10 looks at Christ. Sometimes in the Christian life, we can be very introspective. We need to be aware of what's going on, and yet the Christian life is Christ, to look to him.

The need for personal holiness, it's not great talents that God blesses, so much as great likeness to Christ. A holy minister is an awful weapon in God's hands. And just on and on, and then how God calls him home.

One of my absolute favorites, I love this book, I'm so thankful that God and his providence, through my wife even, brought this to me to read. It was so good. You know, there's so many other banner books here, it's like asking, you know, which of my three daughters is my favorite?

I love them all. I love them all even in different ways. I think those would be the three that, if you haven't read, if you're not familiar with them, I'd point you to, encourage you. Even with the Puritan, Thomas Brooks, read just a little bit each day.

Treat reading it like the way you might enjoy dessert. Just a little bit at a time. Read it, savor it, meditate on it, and tell others about it. How you're being blessed, be quick to share that with others.

Those would be some of the books that most have impacted me.

Jonathan Edwards on Redemption and Preaching the Mysteries of Christianity

Hi, I'm John Rawlinson, I'm the general manager of the Banner of Truth Trust. And I've been asked to talk to you about a couple of books that have been particularly meaningful to me in my Christian life.

And the first one that I've selected is this book, A History of the Work of Redemption by Jonathan Edwards. I'd read the biography of Jonathan Edwards that we published that's written by Ian Murray before I read the works of Jonathan Edwards themselves.

And I'd been very interested in the man. I loved the way Ian told his life story. I enjoyed the theology that Ian brought out from his life and so on. But then I came to reading this particular book, The History of the Work of Redemption.

And I started to see how it was that Edwards achieved the things that he did in his life. And why it was that God used Edwards in the way that he did in times of revival and so on. Because as I read this book, I came to realize that Edwards had a phenomenal grasp of scripture.

And it's the way that he links as he goes through. In the book, he starts off at the beginning of the scriptures and he works his way all the way through looking at the plan of redemption, looking at how God worked in the history of his people to bring about the redemption for his church.

The way that Christ was prophesied. The events in the Old Testament where you see the preservation of the line of Christ right through to the culmination of Christ's birth and Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection and so on.

And it was really the way he ties everything together. It just struck me as being absolutely remarkable. And it opened my eyes to certain themes in scripture which I really hadn't seen before. So that's a book I would heavily recommend to people.

If you want to understand redemption, if you want to understand why it is that at the point that Christ dies, the devil thinks he's won the victory when actually that's the point where he's experiencing his greatest defeat.

So all through history, the devil's been trying to foul up the plans of God to bring redemption. And all that he's tried to do has been thwarted by God. And then at the point where he feels he's gained his victory and Christ is crucified, actually what he doesn't realize is that he's suffering his greatest defeat and the way that God has brought that about.

It's just a remarkable book and I would highly recommend it to anybody. So the second book I'd like to recommend is really I think for people who preach, people who pastor and minister in churches. And it's a book by a gentleman called T .J. Crawford.

This book here, The Mysteries of Christianity. It's, I would have to say it's not a bedtime read. So you really have to have your brain engaged if you're going to read this book. It's not something you can pick up, read and fall asleep while you're reading it and expect to gain any benefit from.

I'm not suggesting you should ever really fall asleep when you're reading books, but anyway. It really is something you have to have your brain engaged to read. And he's looking at the fact that within the scriptures, there are mysteries.

There are things that are hard to understand, things that are difficult for us to explain. And there's a sense in which as humans, we feel the need to have a full explanation of everything. And he really engages with this question of, well, there are some things that are mysterious.

So how do we approach them? How do we preach them? It's arranged as a section or a series rather of lectures. They were originally given as lectures. And in a sense, his first, I think his first six lectures, what he's really dealing with is the principles.

And then from looking at the principles, he goes on to particular mysteries, as he calls them, and says, well, this is how you would apply these principles of the approach to scripture in these particular things.

So for instance, he looks at the doctrine of the atonement. He looks at the union of Christ in human nature in the person of Christ. And there are things that are real mysteries. And he talks about the real humanity of Christ at the same time, the divinity of Christ.

How do we understand that? How do we understand Christ as both God and man? And he gives us a way of approaching these things and therefore a way of preaching these things and holding to the full truth of scripture, making sure that we don't emphasize one thing to the expense of something else where actually scripture has both things present.

And I would recommend it. I just feel for anybody who's preaching regularly, it's almost a must read book. It is so helpful for understanding the mysteries that there are in the scriptures and how we approach them and how we deal with them as we then look to expand the scriptures to our people.

So, Mysteries of Christianity, T .J. Crawford.

Evangelical Decline and Holiness in the Christian Life

Hi, my name is Anthony Matheny, a pastor at Christ Church in Radford and a board member for Media Gratia. Here at the Banner of Truth East Coast Ministers Conference and wanted to recommend a couple of books that are available here from the banner.

The first one is Ian Murray's Evangelicalism Divided. I'd read this once several years ago and have begun reading it again recently with the men in our church. It does an excellent job of explaining the lay of the land, spiritually speaking from a Christianity's perspective.

It lets us know why the spiritual state of our country.

Is the way it is.

It explains 1950 to 2000 primarily. So, those years were crucial years and it's really helpful to understand how we got to the point that we are in evangelicalism in our country. So, I recommend that.

Not only that, another one. It's a little bit older, J .C. Ryle, Holiness. We actually read this book as an entire church last year, 20 chapters, 21 chapters. Just a wonderful, practical encouragement from Ryle who reads as if he's writing to our present generation, but it's over 100 years old.

It's just exceptional, encouraging us to walk with the Lord, to deal with sin rightly in every aspect of life, using biblical examples, using historical examples. Ryle does an excellent job encouraging us into Christlikeness in order that we might pursue him with our whole hearts.

You pretty much can't go wrong with a banner book, but these two would be excellent starting points to read.