Having Received the Word

Driving home: Another word is used which has strong overtones of receiving with delight. A welcoming. Or an appropriating reception. Now that's the word Paul uses here.

Martin recounts receiving a speeding ticket without joy, illustrating the difference between merely accepting something and receiving it with delight, which is the meaning of the Greek word Paul uses.

To take it into one's possession without any indication of how it is taken. I might receive a ticket from a policeman. I doubt that I receive that with joy. I've only received one once.

0:42 - 0:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Another word is used which has strong overtones of receiving with delight. A welcoming. Or an appropriating reception. Now that's the word Paul uses here.

Simeon taking baby Jesus into his arms in Luke 2:28 is used as an example of a 'welcoming and appropriating reception' of the Word, full of delight and praise.

Ye receive with a welcoming and an appropriating reception. The word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. This is the word used when it speaks of Simeon in Luke 2.28.

1:35 - 1:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Another word is used which has strong overtones of receiving with delight. A welcoming. Or an appropriating reception. Now that's the word Paul uses here.

Rahab's actions in Hebrews 11:31, hiding and caring for the spies, illustrate a welcoming and appropriating reception, not just opening a door.

Where Rahab received the spies. She didn't just open the door to them. But you remember how she cared for them. She hid them.

2:20 - 2:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by defining 'receiving the word' as used in 1 Thessalonians 1:6, distinguishing it from mere acceptance. He emphasizes it means a 'welcoming and appropriating…

The heavenly host's welcome of Christ at His ascension, with cries of 'Lift up your gates,' illustrates the grand, welcoming reception of the King of Glory.

How have the heavens received him? Well we studied that one day. When I preached two messages on the ascension of Christ. The cry went out from the heavenly host.

2:46 - 2:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first sign of God's effectual call is a warm, hearty embrace of the Word, as illustrated by John 6:44-45 where God draws men by teaching them through the Word.

Martin shares his pastoral hope for someone previously indifferent to the Word who begins to earnestly search it and pray for understanding, seeing it as a sign of God's drawing.

Bless signs to me as a pastor that God is beginning a work of grace. Is when I see someone who's been indifferent to the word. Beginning to search the word earnestly. And begin to cry to God that he'd understand the scriptures.

10:52 - 11:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Parents, consider your children showing an independent thirst for the word of God and welcoming it as a sign that God may be beginning a work of grace in them.

He suggests that children showing an independent thirst for the Word, welcoming it, and listening attentively to preaching, is a sign of God beginning a work of grace in them.

When those kids begin to show an independent thirst for the word of God. When they begin to welcome the word. When you find that even when they know you're not checking on them. You look out the corner of your eye and you see them sitting there with their mouths open.

15:18 - 15:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Parents, consider your children showing an independent thirst for the word of God and welcoming it as a sign that God may be beginning a work of grace in them.

He contrasts children merely parroting the Word with genuinely receiving it, warning against mistaking superficial repetition for true spiritual engagement.

It may be God's beginning a work of grace. Not when they can parrot it. That may be nothing but the work of producing a little parrot. Not when they can mouth it.

15:48 - 15:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself: Have you received the Word? Are you receiving the Word this morning? Is your heart reaching out and welcoming it with a glad appropriation, or are you simply being exposed to it?

Martin recounts being considered 'cruel' by other preachers for taking irreverence during the preaching of God's Word, even from young children, as a mark of an unregenerate heart.

But when it's evident that they begin to receive it. You see, that's why I'm thought cruel by a lot of my preacher friends when I go to their churches and speak at the Bible camps. I'm convinced that even a six year old or a seven year old or a five year old whose heart is beginning to be open to spiritual things will show a basic reverence for the word of God when it's preached and when it's taught. And whenever I see irreverence, I don't care on what level it is, when the word of God is preached, I take it as a mark of an unregenerate heart.

15:58 - 16:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Are you convinced that if you throw off the absolute authority of the scripture, you have no grounds from henceforth to even claim you're a Christian?

He uses the metaphor of a 'big red X' versus a 'little dim, gray question mark' over scripture to illustrate how the devil subtly undermines the absolute authority of the Bible in evangelical circles today.

Are you convinced that if you throw off the absolute authority of the scripture, you have no grounds from henceforth to even claim you're a Christian? As Jerry Starrett pointed out so clearly in the men's class this morning, and I feel I must speak a word of warning to you as God's people, there is even in our evangelical circles today, emerging not a great big red X over the doctrine of the absolute authority and inspiration of the scripture. The devil couldn't foster a big red X on God's people, but you know what there is?

20:02 - 20:44 Read in full sermon

The point: When you sit here Sunday by Sunday, do you see beyond the black book and beyond the preacher, and receive it as the word of God?

Martin compares Paul's listeners seeing beyond the 'hook-nosed Jew' to God speaking, with his own listeners seeing beyond the 'turned-up-nosed Swede' to receive the Word as from God.

But he said, When you people saw me going through the scroll, coming from the scroll that Jesus was the Christ, you saw beyond the parchment, you saw beyond this little hook-nosed Jew, and you saw the God who made you, speaking with power and authority, through the hook-nosed Jew who held some parchments. He says, Thank God you received it. Oh, I trust, dear ones, when you sit here Sunday by Sunday, you see beyond the black book, and beyond not the hook-nosed Jew, but the turned-up-nosed Swede, and you receive it as the word of God. Do you?

23:19 - 24:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explores the first circumstance: 'in much affliction.' He explains that tribulation is a common lot for believers, as Paul assured his converts, and describes affliction as…

A quote stating that 'An age out of fellowship with martyrs is neither noble nor blessed, however prosperous,' is used to introduce the difficulty modern Christians have understanding affliction.

He said he received the word in much affliction. And secondly, with joy of the Holy Ghost. Someone has said, An age out of fellowship with martyrs is neither noble nor blessed, however prosperous. It's hard for us to understand this little phrase, receive the word in much affliction, because most of us, for the most part, do not know experimentally what much affliction means.

25:27 - 26:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explores the first circumstance: 'in much affliction.' He explains that tribulation is a common lot for believers, as Paul assured his converts, and describes affliction as…

He uses the imagery of 'leeks and onion and garlic of Egypt' to represent the comforts of the world that new converts might return to if discouraged by the truth of coming affliction.

This is the word used throughout the length of Scripture for the, translated some places, tribulation. And Paul, it's strange to say, assured all of his converts that just as surely as they had a common lot in their sinfulness, in their Savior, in their hope of heaven, he always assured them they were going to have a common lot in their afflictions and in their sufferings. Notice what he said in Acts chapter 14. What a terrible thing to tell a bunch of new converts if you want to get them discouraged and send them back to the leeks and onion and garlic of Egypt.

26:01 - 26:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explores the first circumstance: 'in much affliction.' He explains that tribulation is a common lot for believers, as Paul assured his converts, and describes affliction as…

He describes affliction as 'experiencing the vice-like jaws,' emphasizing the pressure and squeezing nature of tribulation.

If our Lord Jesus says to his own, ye shall have, then Paul had no qualms wherever he went, saying, listen, sooner or later, if you're not in the crucible now, you will be in it. And it's interesting, this word tribulation or affliction comes from a word which means to put pressure upon, to squeeze, to press. Ah, that's what affliction is. It's experiencing the vice-like jaws.

28:31 - 28:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explores the first circumstance: 'in much affliction.' He explains that tribulation is a common lot for believers, as Paul assured his converts, and describes affliction as…

He compares recruiting soldiers in wartime, where volunteers know the risks and make better fighters, to the church in times of persecution, where fewer 'volunteers' but stronger believers emerge.

Scripture says all Christians will have a part in that. The affliction, the tribulation, of rejection, openly, overtly, or covertly, it matters not. Perhaps this is why this church is so virile. For you see, when people are recruited in time of war, they don't join the army to see the world through a portal.

31:26 - 31:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the seemingly contradictory pairing of affliction and joy, explaining that God delights in joining such opposites. The Word, though bringing affliction, also…

He uses the analogy of an 'unfitting couple' (a 6'7" man and a 4'11" woman) to highlight the seemingly mismatched pairing of affliction and joy, emphasizing God's unique way of joining things.

Now, whoever heard of such a foolish, undefitting couple as affliction and joy? You know, sometimes you see a couple coming down the street. He's six foot seven and she's four foot eleven. And you say, now, how in the world did those two ever get together?

37:34 - 37:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the seemingly contradictory pairing of affliction and joy, explaining that God delights in joining such opposites. The Word, though bringing affliction, also…

The incarnation of God becoming man and being born in a stable is used as an example of God putting together things that humans would never conceive, like 'Deity and the smell of dumb.'

Well, you see, God just likes to put together things that we human beings would never put together. Who would ever thought of God becoming a man? And choosing to breathe his first breath amidst the acrid smell of a stinking stable. Who would ever dream of a thing like that?

38:34 - 39:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the seemingly contradictory pairing of affliction and joy, explaining that God delights in joining such opposites. The Word, though bringing affliction, also…

He contrasts human methods of bringing joy (e.g., anti-poverty programs) with God's method of bringing joy through the 'crucible of suffering,' highlighting the inseparable relationship between the two.

Well, he doesn't do it by stepping up the anti-poverty program, giving double benefits of social security. He lets them come to the Christian faith in the crucible of suffering. Why? Because he knows that there's an inseparable relationship between joy and affliction.

39:24 - 39:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you know anything of the joy of the Holy Ghost? It has nothing to do with things and circumstances.

He describes martyrs 'hugging the faggots to their breasts' as they die, illustrating their profound joy in suffering and their anticipation of release into God's presence.

Like some of the martyrs, they die hugging the faggots to their breasts. Why? Because all men can do is release them from the prison of this body, to go into the presence of their...

45:12 - 45:24 Read in full sermon