Responsibilities to God, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: Martin reviews previous sermons on who should be a church member (Acts 2:41) and what happens after joining (Acts 2:42), emphasizing that these questions, not church growth…

The sermon will focus on the 'mountain peaks' of duty and privilege, rather than the entire landscape, like the sun illuminating peaks while lower areas are shrouded.

Paul, an apostle and bond-slave of Christ unto the church of God, which is in Christ Jesus, at Thessalonica, unto the church of the Philippians, etc. And we must seek to think in that biblical mentality when we pick up these epistles, reminding ourselves that they were, in the first instances, words of apostolic instruction, correction, and comfort, setting forth the privilege and duty to the churches of Christ. And therefore, to be exhaustive would mean we'd have to go to all of those epistles and seek to organize and collate the full spectrum of the duties and privileges of church members. N...

4:36 - 5:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He outlines the sermon series' framework: duties rendered directly to God, to one another, and to the world. Martin then justifies using 'duty' and 'privilege' together, arguing…

A story of a benevolent king inviting a peasant to his table illustrates that duty and privilege are not incompatible; a loving subject fulfills the king's command with delight and counts it a privilege.

Well, let me give a simple illustration to demonstrate that not only is that bad theology, it just plain doesn't make sense even at the human level. Imagine that there exists in a certain kingdom where they still have the arrangement of a king who has absolute rule under God and subjects who are, who are answerable to the rule of the king. There dwells a good, a gracious, a righteous, a beneficent king. He exercises his rule not simply to promote his own image and certainly not to have a platform from which to indulge his carnal appetites and desires, but he has a sense of accountability to Go...

14:36 - 16:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Make presence at the stated gatherings of the congregation a matter of conscience between you and God.

The example of Jesus saying 'where two or three are gathered' is used to refute the idea that obligation to attend church is conditioned by congregation size, arguing the duty is vertical and unalterable.

Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. He envisions a situation, whether in the midst of unusual unbelief or in the midst of persecution, but he pictures a situation where the church may be reduced in a given area to two or three.

22:10 - 22:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second category of evidence is the assumed complexion of New Testament churches, where writers like Paul and Jesus (in Revelation) expected all members to be present at…

The church at Corinth is likened to a physically sick person with many evident problems, yet it is noted that chronic absenteeism was not among them, highlighting the assumed presence of members.

the church at Corinth, the church with manifold problems. I don't mean to be coarse, but if we were to liken the church at Corinth to a person who was sick, and I mean sick, that church had an evidently fevered brow, had a stenching breath because of some internal gastrointestinal problems. It limped. It had arms and slings, patches on the eye. I mean, its problems were evident. It wasn't some hidden thing off. It wasn't in the left corner of some unessential or non-vital organ. No, its sickness was evident.

34:03 - 34:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel the weight of the truth that your absence from the gathered church, God's temple, is a despising of His grace.

The absence of a 'living stone' (a believer) from the gathered church (God's temple) is depicted as leaving a 'hole in the wall,' despising God's grace in placing them there.

Shall I allow the temple to come to its visible expression in a stated gathering of the church, and willfully and deliberately leave a hole in the wall where God in sovereign grace has marvelously placed me? Shall God, shall God's pain redemptive to take me, to take you, who were dead in sins, in the midst of the deadness of the whole quarry of humanity, as living stone? We so despise those those that we willful from the coming of that temple in its stated gathering for despising the grace of God. Do you see how horrendous it appears when you look at it in that light? That's why I said, get ho...

43:45 - 44:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the truth that God went to such pains to make you part of His body work its way into your conscience, making willful absence from its visible expression unthinkable.

The absence of a church member from the gathered 'body of Christ' is likened to a pinky or kneecap being willfully absent from a physical body, emphasizing its grotesque and incongruous nature.

Shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent? Shall I, just the slightest appendage on the right hand of God, shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent? Shall I, just the slightest appendage on the right hand of God, shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent? Shall I, an ear, be willfully, deliberately absent?

49:23 - 49:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the glory of being a royal priesthood get hold of you, so that minor ailments won't keep you from the assembly, and you will eagerly fulfill your privilege of sacrificial service.

Martin shares his personal reflection on preparing for worship, wondering what he is doing there and concluding it is to fulfill his role as a new covenant priest in God's royal priesthood.

Almost every Lord's day gives me a sense of wonder when we gather. Maybe you've wondered, maybe you haven't. Maybe I'm the only person that wonders such things, but maybe some of you have wondered what do the men who sit on the platform think about when they're preparing their hearts for worship? That's a legitimate question. I'll tell you what I often think about is this concept. What am I doing here today? There's a last place in the world I'd be if left to the dictates of my own native disposition, my own unregenerate heart. I'd be far from God.

52:06 - 52:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the glory of being a royal priesthood get hold of you, so that minor ailments won't keep you from the assembly, and you will eagerly fulfill your privilege of sacrificial service.

God is pictured 'bending over heaven, sniffing the peak of Trinity Church,' and smelling the aroma of Christ's sacrifice in the worship of His royal priesthood, finding it good.

in the company of my fellow priests, offering up sacrifices to the living God. Sacrifices that he's appointed, that through the mediation of Christ he will accept, that will be in the language of Ephesians 4, an odor of a sweet smell in the nostrils of God. Oh, I love to picture God bending over heaven, sniffing the peak of Trinity Church, and when he smells the aroma of the sacrifice of Christ. Sacrifice of worship, coming up from mouths and hearts the likes of ours. He smells in it the fragrance of the garments and the blood of his Son, and he says, ask us what I sent my Son for, that I migh...

53:37 - 54:59 Read in full sermon