Top Ten Books Warnings to the Churches

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is

Mike Abendroth, and we are back on the air. It sounds like I'm live, although this is

Memorex of that old commercial. Is it live or is it Memorex? So today is

Memorex. I've been playing a few reruns once in a while, maybe once a week or every other week we'll play a rerun in there, because after all,

I have a real job. This is just a, is this a hobby? Is this a ministry? What is this?

Well, you can be the judge on No Compromise Radio ministry. I'm glad to be on just before R .C.

Sproul. Can you imagine that? You think to yourself, on the radio, I'm on the slot before R .C.

Sproul. That's pretty good. I think it used to be R .C. Sproul and then MacArthur, and then

I think John got pushed up to primetime or something. Although the station, you know, loses its power.

I think after my show, pretty much the power's lost in the wintertime. It gets dark at like 3 .15

now in the afternoon. I feel like I'm in Alaska or something. Although the other way you could look at No Compromise Radio slot, you could say

I'm after Jay Sekulow. So I respect what Jay does, but just in a different way.

Then R .C. How long will R .C. Sproul live, John MacArthur, and who will take their places after they go?

God has never had his kingdom misfire because one of his faithful saints, whom he has raised up, goes to glory.

And so when one man is laid low, then

God raises up another. So I'm wondering who's gonna be the next kind of R .C.

Sproul, John MacArthur? I don't know. Maybe Mark Dever, I'm not sure. Well, on No Compromise Radio today, we're continuing with my top 10 books,

Christian books, books that have helped me understand the Bible, Christ Jesus, his work, who

God is, those kind of books. And I think we've gone through, I don't know, maybe four, The Attributes of God by Pink, Sovereignty, Evangelism and the

Sovereignty of God by Packer. What else have I gone through? The Forgotten Spurgeon by Ian Murray.

And today I have another book that I probably wouldn't put it in my top 10 list of all time, but I would put it in my top 10 list of, if you are a

Christian, you need to read this book. And this book was influential in my life early on.

It really helped form the way I would think. So if you're a malleable Christian in your formative years, you need to read this book because it will help you.

And this book is especially important today when we can hardly say anything negative about anyone lest we be labeled with the moniker, hater.

Hey, hater. You are given the moniker of hater, unloving.

People just throw out words. Now, sometimes people are haters and they're unloving and there's an attitude and a bite to the discussion of false teachers and the defense of the gospel.

But frankly, there's a bite to the defense of the gospel in Galatians.

Here's a homework assignment for you. Go home today and read the book of Galatians out loud to just get a feel, a sense of the emotion behind that very book.

And I find it, I was gonna say fascinating, but I find pretty much everything fascinating. To me, it's peculiar that Paul could say,

Timothy, Acts 16, he needs to be circumcised so we can have entree under the

Jews. They're not demanding it. It's just gonna be easier for us in ministry. And as Paul said in 1

Corinthians 9, to those under the law of the Jews, we became like those under the law, even though I'm not really under Mosaic law.

And Paul was fine to do that. But with the Galatian Judaizers, you have to have

Titus circumcised. You want Titus to be saved? It is the sacrifice of Christ plus the sacrament of circumcision.

And Paul said, absolutely, categorically, no. And so when you read that letter, there's a bite there.

But the book that I wanna recommend today, I don't think it's as caustic as Galatians might be, but it helps you think through the issues.

And the book today is by J .C. Ryle, an Anglican of the 19th century. And the book is called

Warnings to the Churches. Warnings to the Churches, a Banner of Truth book.

Now, Forgotten Spurgeon was on Banner of Truth as well. And there are some publishers today that you know when the book is published, that it is going to line up theologically.

And Banner of Truth is one of those companies where when you buy that book from Banner of Truth, you're going to know it's going to be solid.

The editors are strong. The message is strong. Now, you might not agree with everything.

If you are pre -millennial, for instance, you're not gonna believe the amillennialism that are in some of the books.

But overall, you're going to like Banner of Truth. I don't know, maybe if I could pick one publisher today, if you said, you know what, you could have all the books, you know, the hundred books that they publish,

Banner of Truth is gonna be the top 100 more so than other companies. But Warnings to the

Churches, J .C. Ryle. Now, when you first read this book, you're going to say, it doesn't read like a 19th century book.

It's lively, it's action -packed. It seems modern in its vernacular and the way it reads.

And you're going to say, this sounds like John MacArthur. J .C. Ryle writes like John MacArthur.

Now, after a minute, you'll say to yourself, well, MacArthur's in the 21st century and Ryle's in the 19th century, so maybe

MacArthur was influenced by J .C. Ryle. Now, he has other books that are very famous. Holiness would be one,

Light from a Different Age. I don't know, what's that one called? Where's Steve Cooley when I need him? Holiness is his famous book.

But J .C. Ryle, if you read the 39 articles of the Anglican faith back in those days, you'll say, that's pretty impressive.

It's like Westminster Confession or Savoy Confession or the Cambridge Declaration or New Hampshire, Philadelphia Baptist -London

Confession in 1689. It will be very, very biblical and God -centered.

And this is a man, J .C. Ryle, when he writes, he writes about God, Christ, and the

Scripture. Therefore, now get this, therefore, it is timely.

You think transchronologically and the most transchronological person or being that you can think about is

God because he's outside of time, he's inside of time, incarnation, there's all kinds of ways that you can go about that.

That's not the conversation for today. My conversation, that's not the dialogue for today. We should have a little dialogue section in the

NoCompromise .com, NoCompromiseRadio .com where you can relate to things and you can add in, chime in, discuss, converse.

When you pick up this book and read it, you'll say to yourself, this still applies today, warnings to the churches.

And you'll see a man who loves Christ Jesus and wants to exalt his glory and a man who is willing to say things about churches and people to pastor and guard the flock.

Warnings to the churches, banner of truth, trust. Now, at the very beginning of the book, I like to write, you know,

I like to underline in books with pencil. Don't ever do a venial sin with some yellow marker, that destroys the book.

But with pencil, I'll write down on the first page, page 31, inspiration.

Something that was really good, I'll underline, but if it's excellent, I'll refer to in the first page.

So then it says page 40, what others will think, all men are weak.

I just put little notes there, so then I can look at the one page and find out the best of the best.

So, warnings to the churches, it has eight chapters. The true church, not corrupting the word, give thyself holy to them,

Pharisees and Sadducees, diverse and strange doctrines, the fallibility of ministers, apostolic fears, and idolatry.

Oh, here, five Christian leaders and five English reformers were two other of his famous books.

Knots Untied, here we have eight papers put together to form this book, chosen by Banner of Truth people.

Now, so let me just open this up and begin to read you some quotes, and then my goal today on the show is for you to want to go buy this book.

We live in a world in which all things are passing away. Kingdoms, empires, cities, ancient institutions, families are all liable to change and corruption.

One universal law seems to prevail everywhere. In all created things, there is a tendency to decay.

So where do you think he's gonna go with that? Where do you think he's gonna go? He's gonna go into how churches decay as well.

Here we have Jesus who builds his church. Upon this rock I will build this church, and the gates of death shall not prevail against it.

And then he goes into a great discourse about how the church might be small, the church might be lowly, the church might be despised, but in the sight of God, precious, valuable

Christ is building the church. Christ uses ministers to preach, but Jesus alone builds.

And when I read that kind of stuff, I remember John MacArthur saying, I'm not gonna try to build the church because I don't want to be in competition with Jesus.

Here's what Ryle said, he often takes the most thoughtless and ungodly and transforms them into polished corners of his spiritual temple.

And that's exactly what the Lord does. And so the first chapter, we see Jesus building a church.

He quotes Luther, Cain will go on murdering Abel so long as the church is on the earth, and how we need to stand up in the church, but being thankful that not one grain, not one person will be lost.

Then he goes to a chapter called Not Corrupting the Word. We're talking about J .C. Ryle's book that I want you to get and I want you to read.

He's talking about in the second chapter, every chapter, every verse, every word in the

Bible has been given by inspiration of God. Standing up for infallibility, standing up for inerrancy, standing up for inspiration.

It says here, we corrupt the word of God when we make a defective practical application of it.

Boy, this is really good. Haddon Robinson back in the day said that most heresy in local churches come from application, wrong application of scripture.

We do so when we do not discriminate between classes in our congregations. When we address all as being possessed of grace by reason of their baptism or church membership, and do not draw the line between those who have the spirit and those that have not.

Are we not apt to keep back playing home appeals to the unconverted when we have 1800 or 2000 persons before our pulpits, a vast proportion of whom we must know are unconverted?

Are we not apt to say, now if there be any one of you who does not know the things that are for his eternal peace, when we ought rather to say, if there be any of you who is not the grace of God in him, are we not in danger of defective handling of the word in our practical exhortations by not bringing home the statements of the

Bible to these various classes in our congregations? We speak plainly to the poor, but do we also speak plainly to the rich?

We speak plainly in our dealings with the upper classes. This is a point of which I fear we need to search our consciences.

And so J .C. Ryle says that it is time for preachers to preach the word and let the lion out of the cage.

You don't have to defend the word, you just let her rip. Is there any text in God's word which we shrink from expounding?

I read that and I think that is for today. That is for today. If you don't preach verse by verse sequentially, you can preach other ways.

You can be godly and do that. See Spurgeon for details. But it's easier for me to just preach through a text.

Here it says, is there any text in God's word which we shrink from expounding? Is there any statement in the

Bible which we avoid speaking about to our people? Not because we do not understand it, because it contradicts some pet notion of ours as to what is truth.

For instance, my opinion, what about election? How many pastors today of evangelical churches, evangelical free churches,

Baptist churches, won't talk about election because they don't think it's good for the people? J .C.

Ryle would say, Ryles. J .C. Ryle said, don't hold back anything.

Not even election, according to me. Chapter three, give thyself wholly to them, quoting 1

Timothy 4 .15. Here we have, the aim of ministers should be to be a man of God.

It shouldn't be for money. It shouldn't be for some professional reason. It should be for being a minister of God.

We must strive to be men of one thing, that thing being the work of Jesus Christ.

There are many innocent and indifferent amusements for which the minister of Christ ought to have no time. He ought to say,

I have no leisure for these things and I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down. How about that?

How about that? All kinds of amusing things and other things we could do. I have no time for that.

I'm doing a great work. He said, be watchful over your social conduct.

Be diligent to redeem time. So even if you're not a pastor, you can learn from these things.

We should give attention to reading every day that we live. We should strive to bring all our reading to bear on our work.

We have to keep our eyes open continually and be ever picking up matter for our sermons as we travel by the way, as we sit by the fireside, as we are standing on the platform at the railway station.

We should be keeping in our mind's eye our master's business. Observing, noting, looking out, gathering up something that will throw fresh light on our work and enable us to put the truth in a more striking way.

He that looks out for something to learn will always be able to learn something. I'll see,

I love that kind of stuff. This is not old acquainted language, acquainted language, old antiquated language.

I am quite sure, Ryle said, that the more we give ourselves wholly to the work of the ministry, the more inward happiness, the greater sense of light of God's countenance are we likely to enjoy.

He has good quotes in the book as well. Charles Simeon. Let's see.

Don't trifle were the words by Charles Simeon. Don't trifle.

I will not trifle. I will not trifle. All right, no compromise radio ministry today. Warnings to the churches.

It's got a chapter on Pharisees and Sadducees that shows good

Bible warning. I may be allowed to say that none need warning so much as the ministers of Christ's gospel.

Our very familiarity with the gospel often begets in us a hardened state of mind.

We are apt to read the scriptures and preach the word and conduct public worship and carry on the service of God in a dry, hard, formal, callous spirit.

Our very familiarity with sacred things, except we watch our hearts, is likely to lead us astray.

Nowhere, says an old writer, is a man's soul in more danger than in a priest's office.

No compromise radio. We are 17 minutes into the show. We've got about seven minutes to go. I'm trying to get you to read a book that's stimulating and that is helpful to both pastors and lay people.

And it's J .C. Ryle's Warnings to the Churches. Let me flip ahead a little bit and come to a spot that I especially like.

Let us beware of the insidiousness of false doctrine, like the fruit of which

Eve and Adam ate. It looks at first sight pleasant and good and a thing to be desired.

Poison is not upon it, not written upon it, and so people are not afraid. Like counterfeit coin, it is not stamped bad.

It passes current from the very likeness it bears to the truth. Let us beware of the very small beginnings of false doctrine.

Every heresy began at one time with some little departure from the truth. There's only a little seed of error needed to create a big tree.

It is the little stones that make the mighty building. It was the little timbers that made the great ark that carried

Noah and his family over a deluged world, deluge world. It is the little leaven that leavens the whole lump.

We cannot tolerate quietly a little dishonesty or a little cheating or a little lying.

Just so let us never allow a little false doctrine to ruin us. By thinking, it is but a little one and can do no harm.

The Galatians seem to be doing nothing very dangerous when they observe days and months and times and years.

Yet St. Paul says, I am afraid for you. Finally, let us beware of supposing that we at any rate are not in danger.

Our views are sound, our feet stand firm. Others may fall away, but we are safe.

Hundreds have thought the same and have come to a bad end. Very striking is a vision of Pilgrim's Progress which describes the hill

Error as very steep on the furthest side. And when Christian and hopeful looked down, they saw at the bottom several men dashed all to pieces by the fall they had from the top.

Never, never let us forget the caution to beware of leaven. And if we think we stand, let us take heed lest we fail.

Good words from J .C. Ryle in his book, Warning to the Church, is one of the 10 books that influenced me the most early in my

Christian walk. If you're not a reader, this book is an easy book to read. It is probably, no, it is exactly 171 pages.

So that's not too bad. Just think, why don't you make it your plan to read one book a month?

And then you can have about, in 20 years, how many would that be? 240 books, that's pretty good.

Here in the chapter called The Fallibility of Ministers, it says, three things there are which men not ought to trifle with, a little poison, a little false doctrine, and a little sin.

Hmm, good stuff. I have learned in the last 32 years that if a clergyman leads a quiet life, let alone the unconverted part of the world, lets alone the unconverted part of the world, and preaches so as to offend none and edify none, he will be called by many a good churchman.

And I have also learned that if a man studies the articles of the faith, 39 articles, and homilies, labors continually for the conversion of souls, adheres closely to the great principles of the

Reformation, bears a faithful testimony against potpourri, and preaches as Jewel and Latimer used to preach, he will probably be thought a firebrand and a troubler of Israel and called no churchman at all.

But I can see plainly that there are not the best churchmen who talk most loudly about churchmanship. I can remember that none cried treason so loudly as Athaliah, 2

Kings 11. Yet she was a traitor herself. I have observed that many who once talked most about churchmanship have ended by forsaking the

Church of England and going over to Rome. Let men say what they will. See, don't you love that?

Let men say what they will. They are the truest friends of the Church of England who labor most for the preservation of the truth.

So today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, if you don't want to read this one, read Holiness. Read Holiness by J .C.

Ryle. You will be blessed. What else do we have here that I could say for a little snippet that might motivate you to be reading or to be encouraged?

Okay, for another thing, let us learn not to put implicit confidence in any man's opinion merely because of his office as minister.

I try to make sure that when I'm counseling people, I tell people, listen, this is what the

Bible says. Therefore, by the grace of God and the Spirit dwelling in you, you must do it. Now, let me tell you some advice.

This is simply my wisdom. This is what the elders have talked about and this is the elders' wisdom.

There's a big difference between do this because I tell you and do this because the Bible tells you, because I have no authority to say anything beyond Scripture that would be binding on the conscience of the person.

This is what we think is wise means this is what we think is wise. This is what the Bible says is infallible, ordained not by men but by God.

The other is just my opinion. All right, let's see.

Let us not be stopped by the cuckoo cry of controversy. The thief likes dogs that do not bark and the watchman that gives no alarm.

See, don't you just love that? Let us not be stopped by the cuckoo cry of controversy.

Oh, that guy's always controversial, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. See, he thrives on that, he wants that.

Well, that just is part and parcel of gospel ministry. This is the truth.

That means all these other things are error. Oh, he's always into controversy. I'm gonna start saying that's the cuckoo cry.

Then I think probably I'm gonna have to give a Cooks and Barney's Award out soon to someone who's always deriding controversy.

And maybe that is going to be the Perry Nobles, the Stephen Furtick's or the James McDonald's of the world.

I'm not sure, but always blasting the discernment ministries. Well, frankly, some discernment ministries need to be blasted because that's all they do, and I don't like that.

But when you preach the truth, you're gonna have to preach against error. And no cuckoo cries around here.

Maybe the cuckoo clock goes off, you'll think of the cuckoo cries of controversy. Mike Habenroth here, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

Warnings to the church's J .C. Ryle. Whether you're in gospel ministry as a staff person or you're a lay person, you'd benefit from this, especially if you're a man.

Read this book, No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Habenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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