The Word of God in Answer to Prayer

Driving home: The first thing he did was to send his word to his people. And then his delivering deed followed this definitive word concerning how he would bring about the deliverance.

Martin lists ways God could have directly confounded the armies (hail, angels, news of other battles) to highlight that God chose to send His word first, illustrating His principle of working through the faith of His people.

Now this pattern is illustrative of a very fundamental principle in the word of God. God could have come directly with his mighty saving and delivering deed. But he didn't do that. God could have confounded those armies that were 15 miles from Jerusalem.

4:41 - 5:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies the author of the word as the Spirit of the Lord, speaking through Jehaziel, underscoring that God is a God who hears and speaks. He warns against impatience and…

Martin recounts Elijah's command to the widow to give him her last meal, with only God's word as assurance, to illustrate acting on God's word before seeing the deed come to pass.

You remember we underscored this in teaching concerning the life of Elijah the prophet. There's that widow. And all she's got is a little bit of a meal and a few sticks. And she's going to bake a cake and die.

6:45 - 6:57 Read in full sermon

The point: When direction comes to us as a church, recognize it as the word of the living God, even if the manner is less spectacular than ancient prophecy.

Martin compares the Spirit coming upon one man for a prophetic utterance to the Spirit bringing a whole assembly to one mind through the written Word, arguing the latter is even more miraculous as a demonstration of God's power.

More amazing and miraculous. For the spirit of God to come upon one man. For a momentary afflatus. And take that man and speak through him.

14:40 - 14:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: God's direction was to 'go ye down against them' but 'ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord.' Martin…

Martin warns against misinterpreting God's specific directions to Judah (e.g., 'Tomorrow go ye down') as direct, literal commands for contemporary believers, illustrating the danger with examples of people seeking guidance by randomly opening the Bible.

tomorrow now that's where you see it's not a one-to-one thing that's where fanaticism would enter i'd love to say lord since we can take the other word for word and this is the way i used to read the bible i went to a school where everybody read the bible that way waiting for god someone's praying about where to go and if in their devotions the next day they read somewhere in the prophet go thou into egypt then they say the lord's called me to be a missionary to the muslims in egypt and they give you chapter and verse no serious i know a youth organization the director of which encourages the ...

41:12 - 42:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Continue to pursue the present course, confront obstacles with believing, persistent prayer, and do not retrench or turn tail.

Martin uses the conquest of Jericho (marching and shouting) and the defeat at Ai (due to disobedience) to illustrate how God sometimes suspends normal military means to show that victory comes from His power, not human strength or instruments of war.

But God said in this situation though and as you read through the history of Israel you will notice that there were critical times in the history of Israel when God suspended the normal means of giving victory and called his people to military conquest in a way that was so unmilitary that his people and the world might know that behind all the normal conquests was the mighty efficient work of God. But if all he did was to give victory to God through normal military procedures people would begin to think the might and the strength was in the people themselves in their instruments of war. So onc...

44:49 - 45:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Continue to pursue the present course, confront obstacles with believing, persistent prayer, and do not retrench or turn tail.

Martin recounts how Trinity Church previously raised funds for their building and pews through loans and offerings, illustrating a 'normal means' of God's provision, contrasting it with the possibility of a more unusual, 'stand still' deliverance for their current building project.

we've been set in the providence of God we've directed our architect to complete his plans we've directed the architect to continue to press for a building permit we must not retrench we must not back forth go ye forth to meet them the enemy is there the enemy is formidable God says I know this multitude that is against you he's pledged that the cause is his that his presence is ours and he says to us is to them at this juncture we must not turn tail we must go down to meet them we must continue to confront these great obstacles with believing persistent prayer pleading with God to deal with o...

49:27 - 50:56 Read in full sermon