J. C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone

 

J. C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone, by Iain H. Murray. Published 2016, by The Banner of Truth Trust. 273 pages. ISBN 978-1-84871-679-7

Below are some selected quotations from the book.

Chapter 8: Stradbroke: Twenty Fruitful Years

The great aim of all he wrote was to lead readers to respond to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ ‘This is the end for which I desire to write and preach; and it is of little use or value to write and preach for anything else.' 
(p.124)

(Quoted from Ryle’s Principles for Churchmen: A Manual of Positive Statements on Doubtful, or Disputed Points, 1884, p.149)

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Chapter 9: The Teacher

"It is not Atheism I fear so much in the present times as Pantheism. It is not the system which says nothing is true, so much as the system which says everything is true. It is the system which is so liberal, that it dares not say anything is false. It is the system which is so charitable, that it will allow everything to be true. It is the system which is so scrupulous about the feelings of others that we are never to say they are wrong ...

Christianity and Liberalism

Christianity and Liberalism, by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937).
First published 1923. New edition 2009 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 158 pages. ISBN 978-08028-6499-4

The following are selected quotes: 

Contents:

Foreword, by Carl R. Trueman. ix
Acknowledgments. xvi
Preface. xvii
I. Introduction 1
II. Doctrine 15
III. God and Man. 47
IV. The Bible. 59
V. Christ 69
VI. Salvation 99
VII. The Church. 133
Index of Names and Subjects. 153
Index of Scripture References. 158

Chapter I: Introduction:

The purpose of this book is not to decide the religious issue of the present day, but merely to present the issue as sharply and clearly as possible, in order that the reader may be aided in deciding it for himself. (p. 1)

Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963).

A quote from Mere Christianity, Book II ("What Christians Believe"), Section 3 ("The Shocking Alternative "):

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

The Christian Soldier

The Christian Soldier: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-20, by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981). First printing 1978; eighth printing 1989. ISBN 0801058015.

This 363-page book with twenty-five chapters was compiled from sermons preached by Dr. Lloyd-Jones on eleven verses: Ephesians 6:10-20. This book was a companion to The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13. The following quotes are a few excerpts from selected chapters.

Chapter 4: Morale

How did the saints overcome the devil 'by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony'? Doubtless it includes the thought that they spoke to the devil. They put into practice the exhortation, 'Resist the devil; and he will flee from you' How do you do so? 'You cannot touch me any longer. You used to be able to touch me, but you cannot now, the blood of Christ is upon me.' And the mention of the word 'the blood of Christ' always defeats the devil. "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony.' They turned upon him and they said: 'You are a defeated foe and we belong to the One who defeated you; we are no longer afraid of you.' That is how it is done! "They overcame.' They did not just sit back and let Christ overcome them. That is not the teaching of the Scripture. You and I are enabled to do the overcoming by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony. There is no 'let go and let God' here. You hold on and you fight. The astounding truth is that we are enabled to conquer the devil, to overcome him, to be more than conquerors over him. We are to resist him, and he will flee from us as long as we do so in this right way. (p.61)

The Christian Warfare

The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981). First printing 1977; fifth printing 1984. ISBN: 9780801058004.

This 373-page book with twenty-six chapters was compiled from sermons preached by Dr. Lloyd-Jones on four verses: Ephesians 6:10-13. The following quotes are excerpts from selected chapters.

Chapter 1: Introduction

"A Christian's battle is not only with sin inside, but with the Devil and his forces outside. ...we must never forget the devil, we must never forget the 'principalities and powers'. I must never think that my whole problem is confined to that which is within me and in other people. Above and beyond that is this other mighty power arrayed against me, the mightiest of all powers apart from God Himself. Not to remember this basic fact is to court certain defeat and disaster. The great trouble with the world today, and with the Church unfortunately, is that they know so little about the devil and the 'principalities and powers'. Much teaching concerning holiness and sanctification never even mentions the devil and these powers at all. The problem is regarded solely as something confined to ourselves. Hence the total inadequacy of many proposed solutions." (p.19)

"The first thing we have to realize is that the Christian life is a warfare, that we are strangers in an alien land, that we are in the enemy's territory." (p.20)

Almost a Christian

From a treatise by Matthew Mead (1629-1699). Mead preached a series of sermons at London, England, in 1661, which were later published as a book under the title "The Almost Christian Discovered, or The False Professor Tried and Cast." This is an excerpt published as a tract by Chapel Library, Pensacola, FL:

THERE ARE TWO QUESTIONS of very great importance which we should every one of us put to ourselves:

“What am I?” and “Where am I?” Am I a child of God or not? Am I sincere in religion, or am I only a hypocrite under a profession? Am I yet in a natural state, or in a state of grace? Am I yet in the old root, in old Adam, or am I in the Root, Christ Jesus? Am I in the covenant of works that ministers only wrath and death, or am I in the covenant of grace that ministers life and peace? I press this upon you that are professors, because many rest in a notion of godliness and an outward show of religion, and yet remain in their natural condition. Many are hearers of the Word and not doers of it, and so deceive their own souls (James 1:22). He that slights the ordinances cannot be a true Christian, but yet it is possible a man may own them and yet be no true Christian.

A Pastor's Sketches

A Pastor's Sketches: Conversations with Anxious Souls Concerning the Way of Salvation, Volumes I and II, by Ichabod Spencer (1798-1854). Volume I originally published in 1850, Volume II in 1853. Republished 2013 by Solid Ground Christian Books and Granted Ministries Press. ISBN 978-1-59925-332-9.  603 pages.

The following excerpts are from Volume II, Chapter 18, "The Whistling Thinker," pp. 158, 159, 161. They describe a conversation between Ichabod Spencer (the author) as a young pastor, speaking with a then widely-known New England pastor in his 70's, who had been a pastor for forty years. The conversation took place in the first half of the 1800's:

“Now, my son, never get into a strait-jacket. You will find it pinch. It will make your bones ache. Many a minister becomes more familiar with his theological system than he is with his Bible; and not only so, but his system stands first, and when he gets hold of a text, he interprets it to square with his system, instead of paring and whitling off his system to make it agree with the text; and among his pastoral duties, he sticks to his Calvinism more than he sticks to Christ; and he would pray his system, too, if the Holy Spirit didn’t make his prayers for him. And in this way he systems his Bible into a corner, and his own soul into a nutshell. Never do that, in the pulpit or among the people. 'Preach the word’—the word, my son—THE WORD!

"Are you a Calvinist?” said he, gently, after speaking in a voice of thunder.