1984 Nugget of Gold for the New Year

The point: Pray that God would speak a particularly fitting word for the coming year, and that the Holy Spirit would write it upon our hearts.

Martin imagines promising a three-ounce pure gold nugget as a New Year's gift to illustrate the excitement and value people place on material wealth, contrasting it with the infinitely greater worth of God's spiritual promise.

I had said that if you came to the service tonight, I would stand at the door, at the conclusion of the service, and give to every one of you a very special New Year's present. And that New Year's present would be, in the form, of a three-ounce pure gold nugget.

1:52 - 2:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Providence is the written transfer of God's decrees. That's the only place you'll ever see God's decrees is in the transcript of his providence. You try to read them anywhere else and you'll get in trouble.

Martin describes providence as 'the written transfer of God's decrees' or 'the transcript of his providence' to explain how believers discern God's will through unfolding events, rather than direct revelation.

Providence is the written transfer of God's decrees. That's the only place you'll ever see God's decrees is in the transcript of his providence. You try to read them anywhere else and you'll get in trouble. But we can read his decrees in the transcript of providence.

10:38 - 10:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The promise was given to the entire nation of Israel and specifically to Joshua, highlighting its sufficiency for both the ordinary believer and those in strategic leadership…

Martin quotes Fox's description of God's people as 'God's five-ranked army of descending human weakness' to emphasize the diverse and often humble nature of those God calls.

We are in very many ways a motley bunch. And any true church will be just that. You beware of any church that has a peculiar cast to it in terms of either the gift, the deposit of gift, temperament, and all of these other things that make us so different each from the other. Because the Lord Jesus calls His people, God has made up the role of His elect from a motley bunch, what Fox called God's five-ranked army of descending human weakness.

16:04 - 16:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And yet, you sit here tonight, a monument of God's keeping faithfulness. Why? Because His abiding presence and His unfailing faithfulness have brought you to this hour.

Quoting Proverbs 25:19, Martin uses the imagery of a broken tooth and a foot out of joint to illustrate the futility and pain of relying on an unfaithful man, extending it to the hypothetical (and impossible) idea of an unfaithful God.

I will do neither of these things. The writer to Proverbs says in Proverbs 25, 19, Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and like a foot out of joint. Now there's a nice big steak in front of you. And you say, boy, that'll taste good.

21:14 - 21:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe that God is our God and guide even unto death, capable of overcoming any obstacle, whether a swollen Jordan or a walled city of Jericho.

The story of Jericho's walls falling after Israel marched around it is used to demonstrate God's power to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles with unconventional means, reinforcing the call to trust and obedience.

And so if we would face the coming here individually, corporately, with that kind of bright, happy, God-glorifying courage, it's not going to come by trying to whip up the troops into some kind of carnal fervor. It will come as each one of us, alone with God, sitting here even now under the preaching of the Word, are enabled by the Spirit to take that promise and to assimilate it spiritually and believingly that when God says, I am with you, I will not fail you nor forsake you, He means exactly what He says. And in every situation then where I feel like the children of Israel, there is somethi...

31:29 - 32:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Commit yourselves afresh to the simple principle of doing the will of God, saying with our Savior, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.'

Martin compares obedience to breathing when love for Christ is strong, and then to climbing an icy, steep hill with a heavy burden and stones thrown at you when feelings are absent, illustrating the varying ease and difficulty of obedience.

that are yet closed that may hold in them as they open in divine providence sites that will shock us and all of the valleys through which God may bring us in which we'll know what it is to pass through valleys that we have not seen before. If we would know the sweetness of this promise dear people of God let us commit ourselves afresh to this simple principle we are here to do the will of God. To say with our Savior my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. To obey Him in those seasons when our hearts burned within us and obedience is no more a burden than breathing...

40:14 - 41:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Commit yourselves afresh to the simple principle of doing the will of God, saying with our Savior, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.'

The historical account of the Ark of the Covenant being captured and placed in Dagon's temple is used to show the futility of superstitious reliance on sacred objects when God's people are disobedient.

If it feels good it must be right, if it feels bad it must be bad. And the measure of right and wrong has been our feelings rather than the book of the law, the word of God. And here God is saying to His people and to Joshua their leader look, here's your task. Here's the pledge of my promise. Do what I say and you will know the fulfillment of my gracious word of promise. And I will again and again manifest that I am God. I am with you. The scripture says God even put His terror upon the nations. Word got out that there God is the God who does things that you can never predict. What a tragedy....

43:07 - 44:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Commit yourselves afresh to the simple principle of doing the will of God, saying with our Savior, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.'

The story of Israel's defeat at Ai due to Achan's sin is used to powerfully illustrate that God withdraws His presence and blessing from a disobedient people, even after great victories.

And God let their sacred object end up in a pagan idol temple. And the nations realized that their God was not in a box. He was with a people who obeyed them. And you see whatever we have known of God's presence in the past, it's not confined to these walls, nor will it be confined or in any way conditioned upon the aesthetic beauty of phase two. When God ceases to see in Trinity Church a body of people determined to do His will at any cost, then He'll remove His presence from us. And when that happens, I don't want to be here. You saw what happened to Joshua when he tried to lead a disobedien...

44:00 - 44:46 Read in full sermon