Sermon – Kelston Community Church

Do not be true to yourself: countercultural advice for the rest of your life

I like Kevin DeYoung. His preaching is versatile and he is able to adjust his sermons to Christians of different maturity levels and different age groups. He has written a number of short books which are easy to pick up and quick to read. Who doesn’t like short books? It gives you a sense of achievement in finishing a book quick! While his short books can be short (he writes longer books too), they are by no means shallow or unchallenging.

I picked up “Do not be true to yourself: countercultural advice for the rest of your life” because well, the title grabbed me! In an age when the world keeps telling you to “be true to yourself”, “follow your own passion” and so on, “do not be true to yourself” is a rather counter-intuitive piece of advice, but hey, anything that goes against the grain of the world can’t be wrong, can it?

This book is easy to pick up, because it is based on sermons that DeYoung preached to students and graduates at baccalaureate and commencement services. Therefore the 5 sermon adaptation in this book is written and targeted to teens and young adults. One look at the headings and it will give you an idea of what this book is about: “Don’t be true to yourself”, “Choose for yourselves”, “The first day of the next chapter of your life”, “Two ways to live” and “Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and the Kingdom of God”. This book is about choices you make while you are young. Make the right choices while you are young and you can enjoy God for longer while on earth. The book has an Ecclesiastes 12:1 ring to it: “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them'”

It’s only 56 pages, and you can easily read the book in one reading – what an achievement! It is very easy to understand, and you will take away something practical in every single one of the five short chapters. It’s a good reminder of how Jesus commands those who are His disciples to live on earth. A quote from the book: “You should not be true to yourself, unless you have died to your old self and your new self is raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly places.” Good stuff!

Reviewed by Jin Wan

Romans (14 Volume Set)

If a preacher faithfully preached the entire book of Romans once a week, every single week, how long would it take for him to finish preaching? If you’re Martyn Lloyd-Jones, it’ll take you 13 years. This man of God – one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century, one whom I consider a 20th century Christian Puritan – faithfully preached every single Wednesday, for 13 years on the book of Romans.

These 14 books are based on all his preaching on Romans, but has been adapted and personally edited by Lloyd-Jones to suit reading. When I bought the full set of 14 books, I wasn’t sure if I would ever finish reading the set. But when I got started and felt the depth of the gospel of God Himself through Lloyd-Jones’ blessed preaching, I really couldn’t stop.

Here’s the thing about Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ preaching. He is utterly faithful in his exposition. He plumbs the depths and riches of every verse in Romans to its uttermost depth, but he remains faithful and will not “fill in the blanks” in areas where Scripture has intentionally left blank. The depth of his preaching unearths things you never thought about in Scripture, while the faithfulness of his preaching makes it trustworthy. If you have listened to the recordings of his sermons (I highly recommend you do on https://www.mljtrust.org/), when you read these books, you would feel as if he’s still preaching “live” to you.

Here are some quotes from the books:

“The devil cannot prevent any of us from becoming Christians, but he often does succeed in making us miserable Christians.”
– Romans: Exposition of Chapter 1

“Are you a Christian? This is how you discover the answer. Have you ceased altogether to look at yourself or to yourself, in every possible way? And are you looking only and entirely and utterly to the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, and what He has done on your behalf?”
– Romans: Exposition of Chapter 3:20 – 4:25

“We must not only assert the truth; we must attack the evil and the false; we must ‘prove’ our truth and demonstrate it; and that can only be done by means of a negative. State the truth, consider the objections, answer them, and so you establish the truth yet more firmly. This is the method of the Apostle himself.”
– Romans: Exposition of Chapter 8:17-39

These are powerful books and the Holy Spirit still works through Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ exposition of Romans. These 14 books will help you realise who God really is, who you really are, and how God really relates to His people whom He has chosen and saved. Read them and weep, rejoice, love, anticipate and rest.

Reviewed by Jin Wan