Divine Directive to Married Men Part 1

The point: Write down 1 Peter 3:7, ponder it, and work it out to be a husband well-pleasing to God.

Martin asks the audience to imagine being in a room with transformed married men who, having lived unprincipled lives, now earnestly desire to know God's will for husbands. This sets up the need for Peter's concise directive in 1 Peter 3:7.

1 Peter 2, verses 11 and 12. 1 Peter 2, verses 11 and 12. You husbands, in like manner, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the woman as unto the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life, to the end that your prayers be not hindered. Now I would like all of you this morning to imagine with me that you are in a room with a lot of people. You are in a large group of married men, and you need to know a little something about these men.

0:33 - 1:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Anticipate understanding more fully the demands of the Christian life with hope and confidence, knowing it means more measures of grace from Christ to fulfill duty.

A father tells his son to jump over a stick, raising it higher each time. The son is given 'Jolly Jumping Juice' to provide the strength for each higher jump. This illustrates that Christian men should not fear higher demands of duty because God provides the grace (Jolly Jumping Juice) to meet them, giving Him all the glory.

And trying to illustrate this, and again I apologize for my silly illustrations, but I think the truth illustrated in a silly way is better than a truth not illustrated if it's a crucial truth. Here's a father that says to his son, now look, we're going to go outside and I'm going to hold a stick at a certain height and I want you to jump over it. And the boy jumps over it. He says, alright, I'm going to raise it six inches.

22:23 - 22:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin asserts that the wife is the 'weaker vessel' primarily in two ways: physically and positionally. He uses the Genesis 2 creation account to illustrate Adam's instinctive…

Martin asks the audience to imagine Adam's reaction to an elephant, suggesting he would not try to dance with it due to its imposing physical presence. This contrasts with Adam's joyful, embracing reaction to Eve, highlighting her comparative physical weakness.

Now, if God caused something to pass before Adam that was in any way a counterpart of the modern elephant, can you use your imagination with me and try to think how Adam might have reacted to that elephant when he saw it in its massive, ponderous, essence as an elephant? Do you think he would have had any notion? Oh, that elephant is such a marvelous beast, displaying aspects of the power of God and the magnitude and the greatness of God, and so thrilled with what he sees of God's handiwork in the elephant that he jumps onto its leg and tries to dance with an elephant?

50:00 - 50:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No, I'm rather inclined to believe Adam threw his arms around her and danced with joy, seeing his greater physical strength as a deposit of God to envelop and protect him.

Martin uses the metaphors of a vine wrapping around a tree and a rose blooming on a horny stem to illustrate that being 'weaker' is not demeaning but part of the glory and design of the woman.

She is in her position of submission in the weaker position. And that is not demeaning. As one commentator beautifully stated, is it demeaning that the vine is weaker than the tree around which it wraps itself? Is it demeaning to say that the rose is weaker than the horny stem on which it blooms?

54:27 - 54:54 Read in full sermon