Book Reviews + Open Discussion on Benevolence

The point: Avoid books that are 'spiritual junk food' and clog up your spiritual system.

Martin compares different types of books to junk food, healthy snacks, ordinary meals, and banquets to illustrate their varying spiritual nutritional value and impact on the reader.

the ordinary fare of an average person in a good, well-balanced, wholesome meal, and a well-prepared banquet of good food. And in a very real sense, books fit all of those categories by way of analogy. Some books are like junk food. Junk food is food that exercises all of the faculties of mastication, and the swallowing, and absorption into the body, but has very little nutritional value.

2:35 - 3:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Use the 1689 Confession exposition as a textbook for family devotions, involving teenage children in the teaching process.

A quote from a dear man of God, 'a rut is nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out,' is used to emphasize the importance of freshness in personal and family devotions and how books can help avoid spiritual ruts.

We found over the years, and my wife and I still find, now that the nest is empty, that family worship is very crucial in keeping freshness. One dear man of God said, and I'll never forget it, he said, a rut is nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out. Well, when you get in a rut, you're in a grave with the ends kicked out. In personal, as well as family devotions, at any point in our pilgrimage, I would like to suggest that that may be one way that you could, as a family with great profit, use this book.

8:05 - 8:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Read 'The Agony of Deceit' to understand and combat false teaching, especially if loved ones are exposed to televangelists, and then share it with them.

The book 'The Agony of Deceit' is likened to penicillin, an antibiotic and inoculation, to convey its role in combating and protecting against the 'disease' of false teaching.

Now, another book which, to change the imagery, is penicillin. One is infected with a very, that needs the antibiotic. Penicillin also seems like an inoculation against diseases, is a book recently published called The Agony of Deceit. Now, you can see, those of you familiar with the wide world, have taken that, The Agony of Deceit, and the subtitle, What Some TV Preachers Are Reading. Well, when he handed me a copy of this book that had just been released down in Washington, where he was attending the convention at the direction of the mission, and he handed me a copy, and when I looked into,...

8:45 - 10:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And over the years, I ought to take those more devotional treatises, and many of them, the Puritan works, I've worked through whole sets of the Puritan works, pecking away three, four pages a morning, as primers, to get …

Martin describes devotional treatises, especially Puritan works, as 'pump primers' to help get his mind and spirit into a praying and devotional frame, particularly when starting devotions cold.

and in their length, as far as time is concerned. But even in those times when I am more pressed, and in those times when I have to put in my 40 hours, some other employment other than laboring in the Word, I often found it helpful to have what I call my pump primer for my devotions. Coming straight from the bed, and maybe the kitchen where you've picked up a cup of coffee, and go to your place of devotions, you may find it difficult to just come cold turkey to prayer, or to the...

18:14 - 18:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He recommends John Bunyan's two treatises on prayer, 'Praying with all...' and 'The Throne of Grace,' as a 'pump primer' for personal devotions. He shares his personal experience…

Bunyan's description of a 'sense of the want of mercy' is quoted, comparing the heart overcome with grief and bitterness to blood forced out of flesh by a heavy burden, illustrating the intensity of spiritual need.

Sometimes of the readiness of God, mercy. And then he amplifies those headings. Well, you can take this one one morning. A sense of the want of mercy by reason of the danger of the heart, when it is overcome with grief and bitterness, as blood is forced out of the flesh by reason of some heavy burden that lies upon it.

21:20 - 21:51 Read in full sermon

The point: When it is in your power to do good, do not delay; respond immediately to needs when appropriate.

Martin uses a hypothetical scenario of a brother needing a car but the speaker lacking the funds to illustrate the principle that one can only give when it is 'in the power of your hand to do it.'

All you can say is, brother, if I write now, 7,000, go down to Conner's Chevrolet and get you a nice two and a half to drive around that bucket of boats with the bottom dropping out and the right. But God knows, I don't have that money. But I want you to know, if I did, I'd count it. But it's not in my power to do so.

40:25 - 40:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He provides biblical examples like David's kindness to Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9) and the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) to broaden the understanding of 'neighbor.' He…

Martin humorously notes the difficulty of pronouncing 'Mephibosheth' twice without stumbling, adding a lighthearted moment to the discussion of David's kindness.

I'm glad I could say it twice without getting hung up on it. That's a hard one. Mephibosheth. It really tests whether your lips are awake in the morning.

42:49 - 42:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Do what you do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, confident that it is pleasing and honoring to Him, and do not be bullied into giving without rational, reflective thought.

The example of a panhandler asking for food is used to illustrate the principle from 2 Thessalonians 3:10, suggesting 'tough love' by withholding food from someone who refuses to work, to encourage gainful employment.

hospice in Montclair I have first hand experience of the kind treatment that they give to terminal cancer patients it's a worthy cause with good conscience I can give my annual contribution but when I get an appeal such and such a thing by doing this you can help little children who are having this treatment I say look please send me your literature I have a policy I do not respond to appeals over the phone then I can prayerfully without somebody finding that hook of tenderness in me and taking advantage of me cause me to do something that I would not do upon more rational reflective thought a...

46:32 - 48:01 Read in full sermon