Hold Fast That Which is Good

The point: Don't try to live on spiritual 'honeymoon' experiences; embrace the day-by-day, week-by-week life and ministry of the church.

Compares special spiritual meetings to weddings and honeymoons, which are wonderful but cannot sustain daily life. Daily Christian living is like the bleary-eyed morning over coffee, requiring consistent, less glamorous effort.

The excitement of the past week and the blessing of those meetings is behind us. And those of us who were privileged to share in them have all had this testimony. Did not our hearts burn within us as the scriptures were opened unto us and we saw in a new way the glory of Christ as the Savior of sinners. You don't have too many weddings and honeymoons in a lifetime.

0:02 - 0:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using illustrations from Luke 4:42 and Philemon 13, Martin explains 'hold fast' as taking firm possession of something, drawing it close, and not letting it go, akin to securing…

Compares proving truth to scrutinizing currency to determine if it's real or bogus. If it's real, you secure it in a bank; if not, you discard it. This illustrates the need to test religious claims and then safeguard genuine truth.

We could use the analogy to make it clearer of the whole idea of currency. Here's some money passes through your hands. You say, well, is this the real thing? So you scrutinize it or you take it to a bank.

15:09 - 15:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using illustrations from Luke 4:42 and Philemon 13, Martin explains 'hold fast' as taking firm possession of something, drawing it close, and not letting it go, akin to securing…

A personal anecdote about having tithe money in the house during a break-in, which the burglars overlooked. This reinforces the idea of holding fast to what is valuable, even if it's just a temporary deposit.

Don't just carry it around in your pocket. Don't put it in your dresser drawer where fees can break through and get it. Some of you snicker because you know about our recent experience with our house being broken through. But they didn't get it.

16:05 - 16:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Receive truth into your mind with vigorous mental and spiritual activity, actively 'eating' and assimilating God's words.

Compares holding fast to truth to eating good food, emphasizing the need to take it in, assimilate it, and make it part of one's system, as Jeremiah did with God's words.

In this sense, holding fast the truth is like eating, eating good food.

17:22 - 17:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Roll up your mental and spiritual sleeves to attain a grasp upon truth, just as you would labor for daily bread.

Compares praying for daily bread and then laboring to obtain it, to praying for truth and then engaging in vigorous mental and spiritual activity to grasp it. It warns against presumption in expecting the end without the means.

Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding just as out of his hand comes all of his gifts. But listen, you pray, Lord, give me this day my daily bread and sit home and just wait for God's hand to drop it out of heaven and you'll starve and you ought to for scripture says if any man will not work let him not eat. It's no indication of faith to sit home and not use the appropriate means to get daily bread and it's no indication of unbelief when the man gets up off his knees having prayed, Lord, give me this day daily bread and goes out to sweat and labor to obtain his bread for he knows ...

19:54 - 20:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be spiritually and mentally lazy when coming to hear the Word; engage your total being to receive the truth.

Illustrates spiritual laziness by comparing a preacher to a guitarist and the congregation to a guitar. If the congregation is passive, merely being 'played upon,' they gain nothing lasting from the sermon.

The clear implication being you can pray all day, but if you will not apply yourself to vigorous mental and spiritual activity to assimilate the truth of God, you never will get it. And that's the problem with many of us. I say it not irreverently, the Lord Jesus himself could come and preach in this pulpit for six years and some of you wouldn't know another thing more than you know this morning.

21:04 - 21:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be spiritually and mentally lazy when coming to hear the Word; engage your total being to receive the truth.

Contrasts the passive 'guitar' analogy with a hungry person at a table, who actively chews, swallows, and digests food. This emphasizes the active role believers must take in assimilating truth.

No, no. No, no. You're to come as a hungry person to a table acknowledging that only God can give you bread, but I say it reverently and I'm going to chew it and swallow it for you. Nor is he going to digest it for you.

21:57 - 22:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is no other way to hold fast the word of God. For you remember in the parable of the sower, it says, those by the wayside are these who, having heard the word, understand it not, and then the fowls of the air come …

Poses a hypothetical survey asking people what the pastor preached about versus what they ate for Sunday dinner. The ease of remembering dinner highlights the lack of active engagement with the sermon for many.

There is no other way to hold fast the word of God. For you remember in the parable of the sower, it says, those by the wayside are these who, having heard the word, understand it not, and then the fowls of the air come and pluck it away. It would be terribly embarrassing, wouldn't it, to ask some of you at three o'clock this afternoon to do a survey. I could get a number of you, to work with me on this and call every home where people were present and say, what did the pastor preach about this morning?

22:43 - 23:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Continually stir up your mind in the remembrance of truth, recognizing that truth does not naturally cling to us due to remaining corruption.

Illustrates the depravity of the human mind by noting how easily unwanted, sinful memories persist, while desired truths are like 'quicksilver,' hard to retain, emphasizing the need for intentional remembrance.

When you turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, one of the greatest proofs of our original depravity and the remains of corruption is in this whole area of what we remember. There are things that I remember to this day I've made no conscious effort to remember for 25 years. And yet at the times when I don't want it, they come flashing through with all their vividness. I've spent almost 20 years trying to put down some of those thoughts and yet they come.

32:51 - 33:21 Read in full sermon