Benefits of the House of Mourning

Driving home: It's better to go to the house of mourning than the house to feasting because our presence at a house of mourning reminds us forcefully of our own inevitable end.

Martin contrasts a successful young businessman at a company banquet, unlikely to think of death, with the same man at a funeral for a respected executive, where the open coffin forces reflection on his own mortality. This illustrates why the house of mourning is better for prompting sober thoughts.

He's at a company. He's at a company banquet and there and the speaker comes and makes everyone laugh. And let's assume there's nothing ribald and off, lecherous in the humor that it's wholesome humor. Someone gives a speech on the company's future and a pet employees.

15:07 - 15:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Our presence at a house of mourning should product prepare for our essence at a house of mourning should product to his heart.

He uses the example of a neighbor with a chronic habit that doesn't bother you until you 'lay it to heart,' meaning it concerns you enough to act. This clarifies the phrase 'lay it to his heart' as a deep, impactful concern.

that phrase me well when you lay something to your heart you know long things simply to have a glancing blow upon your thinking or upon your actions or your attitudes for example you may have a neighbor that has a chronic habit of cutting short it could get asked him what are you talking about so many times the the answer to the question yes but how do you find yourself that way aired at least some interest don't know about that in your family i mean it's not quite easy to hear someone think it matters but here's our case when you think that with the root of our mind i all the baked art in a l...

20:47 - 22:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Our presence at a house of mourning should product prepare for our essence at a house of mourning should product to his heart.

Martin recounts the death of a childhood friend who broke his neck jumping into water. Seeing the lifeless body for the first time brought him intense torture and conviction about his own sin and the reality of hell, illustrating how the house of mourning can prod one to prepare for eternity.

in context where people were strangers both to the knowledge and the powers uttered out of place i am not talking about at a funeral at which they gather i am not speaking of that but i am speaking of that irresponsible that damning that dilute difference and insensitivity which the house of mourning ought at least temporary and cause men to remember as a boy dreading the first time i would have to go to a funeral and witness a dead body laid out and i was quite old before i did i had such a dread of such a fear of dying in my sin going to meet my all of my sins

23:21 - 24:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Every graven stone is god's eloquent thunderous exposing the devil for what he is a liar and the father of it.

He describes a cemetery bordering the Garden State Parkway as a constant reminder, causing him to reflect on death and judgment. He calls every tombstone an 'eloquent thundering voice from heaven' exposing the devil's lie, illustrating how physical reminders of death can prompt sober thoughts.

of the most horrible acts of the blind is that he so works in us as the sons and daughters of disobedience that none of us is as naturally so about the great issues of death and judgment as we ought to be and that's why the house of mourning the funeral parlor by the cemetery how i thank the cemetery that presses up on both sides for acres and acres of blood and blood and acres garden state parkway in the 140 section in the irvington area how it's to me hundreds of times over these 22 years when i've been on my way to preach somewhere it's caused me to say oh god tonight in the light of stone ...

28:11 - 29:35 Read in full sermon

The point: If you refuse to think serious thoughts about God, about death, and about judgment, you are refusing the very first steps to salvation.

Martin uses the Super Bowl hype as an example of how people seek to be in the 'house of feasting' to avoid sober thoughts about God, sin, death, and judgment. This illustrates the human tendency to neutralize serious spiritual reflection.

state to be in that's par law wherever you go from the sixth three wise walked man the man who owns in his radio why doesn't want to be quite thing he wants to be in the house of feasting where he can forget why all the hype about Super Bowl what is it 20 two weeks of hype why well one thing is the commercial isn't if you were a company that stood to get over with some of the bad things all the time. I just don't think about it. It stood to get over a quarter of a million dollars for a 30-minute spot ad. You'd be concerned about Super Bowl XX.

35:55 - 37:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Instead of going home and engaging in light conversation, watching the news, and turning your bedroom into a house of feasting, go home, shut yourself alone, take out your Bible, and reflect on the text that impressed yo…

He references Pilgrim's journey in Pilgrim's Progress, specifically how Pilgrim put his fingers in his ears to block out friends trying to keep him from leaving the City of Destruction. This illustrates the necessity of resisting distractions and neutralizers to pursue salvation.

o'clock news and by the time you've had a look at the house of feasting instead of turning your bedroom into a house of morning all do you feel you hear me anything any person which neutralize is the possibility of this build up in that house will be a said or would be a u.s. courts of serious thoughts about person or thing is your mortal enemy and you ought to treat it as such most of you are familiar with at least the broad outlines of pilgrim's progress aren't you and you remember what happened when pilgrim through reading the book of god became convinced he was in the city of destruction a...

44:49 - 46:02 Read in full sermon