The Christian Man in a Wicked Generation

Driving home: an attentive, eager, responsive congregation is in great measure the making of a preacher.

Martin uses the analogy of an attentive, eager, responsive congregation 'making' a preacher, explaining that such listeners draw out the truth from the speaker and refresh his soul, much like a thirsty person draws water.

Now you may think that that's something hard to grasp, but it's true. And anyone who's a preacher, not just a Bible talker, or a manuscript reader, but a preacher who opens his own soul to the truth he's seeking to bring to people and opens his soul to what that truth is doing in those to whom he's bringing it will tell you that an attentive, eager, responsive congregation is in great measure the making of a preacher. And it's evident to me that you men have come hungry, thirsty,

0:46 - 1:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: an attentive, eager, responsive congregation is in great measure the making of a preacher.

He uses the metaphor of hearing 'the throbbing, thunder of cannon in the crack of the rifle' and eyes smarting 'from the smoke of battle' to describe the weariness and yearning to retreat that Christians experience in their spiritual fight in a wicked world.

Our Father, our hearts have been thrilled in the singing of this hymn to know that by your grace, a few more breaths, a few more beating of our hearts within our breasts, and we shall join the church triumphant. O God, we thank you. And yet while we are still here, and our ears hear the throbbing, thunder of cannon in the crack of the rifle, and while our eyes smart from the smoke of battle, and while at times we grow weary, and at times we yearn to retreat,

2:05 - 2:47 Read in full sermon

The point: In your own thinking and in the instruction of your children and in the discussion of this matter with others, insist upon this foundational, fundamental principle (of sexuality's origin in God's design).

Martin argues that a hundred years of telling people they are 'nothing but animals' (traced to primeval slime) leads them to 'act like animals,' where sexuality is reduced to biological urges without morality, explaining the current generation's sexual depravity.

A hundred years of telling people that they are nothing but animals whose ancestry can be traced back into the creatures that hop around in the bush and ultimately to the pool of primeval slime, if you tell people long enough that they are nothing but animals, eventually they'll take it seriously enough and act like animals. And animal sexuality is a matter of pure biological urges. There is no morality to the sexuality of an animal. And therefore, what we are witnessing in our generation

10:20 - 11:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides an overview of the prominence of sexual purity in the Old Testament, from the nakedness in Eden to the degeneracy leading to the flood, Cain's bigamy, Noah's…

He cites the Genesis account of the flood, noting that the period of declension began when 'beauty pageant measurements began to determine the choice of marriage partners rather than godliness,' illustrating how sexual compromise opened the 'floods of wickedness'.

And then when He's describing how wickedness reached such heights in the period of the flood, it's interesting that the introduction of that whole period of declension started when, the word I want is not coming, when beauty pageant measurements began to determine the choice of marriage partners rather than godliness. The whole account of the degeneracy that resulted in God's judgment in the flood begins with these words. It came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the ground

21:27 - 22:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides an overview of the prominence of sexual purity in the Old Testament, from the nakedness in Eden to the degeneracy leading to the flood, Cain's bigamy, Noah's…

The example of Cain's descendant Lamech, the first bigamist, is used to show how throwing over marital fidelity quickly leads to throwing over 'canons of decency and sensitivity' in other human relationships, resulting in brutality.

in the inundation of the whole earth in a flood of judgment. The record of Cain's detentions and his descendants sees the loss of the integrity of monogamy. It is Cain in chapter 4 who is the first bigamist and he brags about it. In verse 19, Lamech took unto him two wives.

22:54 - 23:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides an overview of the prominence of sexual purity in the Old Testament, from the nakedness in Eden to the degeneracy leading to the flood, Cain's bigamy, Noah's…

Noah's single major blot of getting drunk and being naked after the fall is used as an example of unseemly and shameful behavior, illustrating how inhibitions can lead to sin.

And we read further on and there is only one major blot in the life of Noah. Remember what it was? He got drunk after the fall and in his drunkenness his inhibitions were down and he was in a state of nakedness. And though there was sin on the part of one of his sons, nonetheless he was guilty of that which is unseemly and shameful.

24:02 - 24:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The overview continues into the New Testament, highlighting Jesus' teaching on lust in the Sermon on the Mount, His emphasis on marriage sanctity, the inclusion of sexual sins in…

The story of John the Baptist losing his head for condemning Herod's unlawful marriage is used to illustrate the cost of upholding God's sexual standards and asserting God's right to direct what happens in a man's bedroom.

upon people and in all of them, sexual sins are dominant if not placed at the head of the list. And what of John the Baptist who loses his head for saying it was not lawful for a certain man to have another man's wife. He stuck his nose into another man's bedroom and said God has a right to direct what goes on. The council at Jerusalem that is going to give guidance to the infant churches about the precise relationship of Gentile Christians to the law of Moses.

26:31 - 27:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Maintain virginity of mind and body as an uncompromising standard until marriage.

Joseph's refusal of Potiphar's wife, physically running and leaving his coat, is presented as a powerful example of fleeing sexual temptation, emphasizing that there's a time to run, not just pray.

of one who refused it in mind and practices Joseph Genesis 39 and verse 7 how shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Potiphar's wife had the hots for Joseph and whether he was wise to let her make known her desires and not go immediately to her husband I question Joseph's action I personally believe he ought to have gone immediately but the Bible is silent that's a judgment call but this we know when she became so desperate and frustrated that she physically laid hold of him and had she the strength she would have raped him.

29:16 - 29:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Deliberately avoid anything which leads to mental or physical fornication or adultery.

Martin contrasts fleeing sexual sin with wrestling with envy. He explains that one cannot flee the occasion of envy if it's directed at a worship leader, but sexual sins demand physical flight from tempting circumstances.

1 Corinthians 6.18 Flee fornication there are some sins the nature of them is such you cannot flee from the occasions of them if your besetting sin is the sin of envy at the gifts of someone who stands before you every single Sunday and leads in the worship or teaches the adult Sunday school class you can't run from that occasion of sin because it is your duty to be present in the public worship as a member of an assembly and so you've got to wrestle with that along other lines but with respect to these matters of sexual sin

30:42 - 31:27 Read in full sermon

The point: If you can't go to the 7-11 store or to the quick check to buy a paper without your eyes glancing at the porno shelves, don't go to the quick check.

He uses the example of single couples being found in each other's apartments among Reformed Baptists to illustrate the vulnerability to fornication when physical circumstances are not avoided.

whether fornication or adultery the scripture says flee run from fornication you're not going to fornicate in the middle of Main Street you single men you wouldn't fornicate in the living room of one of your church members if you knew they were in the house and I marveled that among reformed Baptist people single couples are found in each other's apartments then they come and tell their sad stories fornication

31:27 - 32:08 Read in full sermon

The point: If you can't go to the 7-11 store or to the quick check to buy a paper without your eyes glancing at the porno shelves, don't go to the quick check.

The example of avoiding the 7-11 or quick check if one cannot buy a paper without glancing at porno shelves is used to illustrate the need for deliberate avoidance of anything leading to mental adultery.

from any physical circumstances that would leave you vulnerable not only to physical fornication or adultery but mental fornication or adultery if you can't go to the 7-11 store or to the quick check to buy a paper without your eyes glancing at the porno shelves don't go to the quick check if you're going to be praying now Lord paper then don't get one you won't go to hell ignorant of what's in the paper

32:08 - 32:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that any autoeroticism is a perversion of God's design and contrary to the will of God.

Martin connects the 'glut of books' rhapsodizing on the benefits of masturbation amongst women to a 'feminist attempt to say you don't need a man for anything,' even sexual fulfillment, illustrating the philosophical drive behind autoeroticism.

teach you that sexuality is not to be sexualized it is not to be sexualized it is not to be sexualized it is not self terminating I have been given my male sexuality that I might render to my God given wife her due not render to myself my due and she has been given her feminine sexuality that she might render to me her due and though feminism has almost deified masturbation amongst women in their vicious attempt to say that she is a woman and that she is a woman and that she is a woman and that she is a woman you don't need a man for anything that's what lies behind the glut

35:04 - 35:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that heterosexual, monogamous, permanent marriage is the only God-ordained context for God-honoring sexual intimacy and all that precedes it (caressing, foreplay).

He mentions 'trial bedding down' and 'constructive incest' (fathers introducing daughters to sexuality) as examples of the wickedness of the generation, illustrating how far society has departed from biblical standards.

We see it in Hebrews 13, 4. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed, what bed? The bed of a duly constituted. Monogamous, heterosexual marriage, and the bed undefiled. The Bible knows nothing of trial, bedding down. The Bible knows nothing of so-called constructive incest.

38:46 - 39:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Settle in your mind that anything that is erotic stimulation of any kind is legitimate only within a monogamous, permanent, marital commitment.

Martin shares his personal experience of having to deal with fathers or grandfathers playing with their daughters or granddaughters in his Reformed Baptist church, illustrating the pervasive nature of sin and the need for vigilance.

That's the wickedness when you will have men who will rationalize in their consciences that to deflower their daughters was a noble act of parenting. Be not conformed to this world. Would to God in my study of a Reformed Baptist church I've never had to deal. With fathers or grandfathers playing with their daughters or their granddaughters. But I've had to.

39:38 - 40:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Marriage partners must make conscience of fulfilling each other's legitimate sexual needs.

He uses the analogies of praying and going to church as matters of conscience, not just feeling, to explain that fulfilling a spouse's sexual needs should also be a matter of duty, even when delight is absent.

Do you pray only when you feel like it? No. You pray as a matter of conscience. Do you go to church only when you feel like it? No. It's a matter of conscience.

41:41 - 41:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Order the priorities of time and recreation and all the other variables so that, in the midst of all of the pressures of life, the sexual aspect of your relationship with your wife will be a wonderful haven of retreat an…

Martin references his own experience as the second oldest of ten kids and remembering the pressures of raising young children (under five, sickness) to acknowledge the difficulties, yet still emphasize the duty of marital sexual fulfillment.

I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm the second oldest of ten kids, so I've always been around little kids.

42:35 - 42:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Marriage partners must jealously guard the sacred sanctuary of their sexual intimacy by watching your eyes.

Job's statement, 'I have made a covenant with my eye that I should not look upon a maiden,' is used as an example of jealously guarding sexual intimacy by controlling one's visual input.

Marriage partners must jealously guard the sacred, sacred sanctuary of their sexual intimacy. Marriage partners must jealously guard the sacred sanctuary of their sexual intimacy. Job did this when he said in Job 31, I have made a covenant with my eye that I should not look upon a maiden,

43:34 - 44:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Marriage partners must jealously guard the sacred sanctuary of their sexual intimacy by watching your eyes.

God's words to Ezekiel, 'This day I will take away from you the desire of your eyes,' are used to illustrate the deep, exclusive, and earthy desire a man should have for his wife, implying that Ezekiel's wife was the sole 'desire of his eyes'.

indicating that had he made no such covenant as a red-blooded man, he would have found himself drawing visual delight from the body of someone other than his wife. God could say to the old man Ezekiel in Ezekiel 24, 16, This day I will take away from you the desire of your eyes. Of all the ways he could describe Ezekiel's wife. He said, you lusty old man, I'm going to kill your wife.

44:07 - 44:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist all influences that mock, erode, or undermine these standards (TV sitcoms, soaps, popular magazines, popular music).

Martin shares his experience dealing with Christian men who descended into pornography addiction and infidelity, illustrating the slippery slope that begins with tolerating illicit content in movies or media, eroding spiritual vigor.

And if you're truly esteeming God's precepts to be right, you'll hate every false way. And when you cease to hate the false way, it won't be long before you'll be vulnerable to the false way. And I'm convinced that many a man who never, never thought he would descend to a frightening addiction to pornography and eventually even to infidelity, to stooping to plunking out his 50 bucks for a harlot and a one-hour stand. And I've had to deal with men, I have no doubt, are Christians over the years who have done all of those things and more.

48:27 - 49:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If the man after God's own heart rises from his bed at eventide and looks and lusts and lays and then murders, who in God's name do you think you are that you can look and look and look and look and never have it catch u…

The example of David, 'the man after God's own heart,' who looked, lusted, lay, and murdered, is used as a stark warning against the danger of looking and looking without consequence, emphasizing that no one is immune to temptation.

If the man after God's own heart rises from his bed at eventide and looks and lusts and lays and then murders, who in God's name do you think you are that you can look and look and look and look and never have it catch up with you?

50:20 - 50:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Confess and forsake your sins.

For those haunted by past memories, Martin uses the analogy of being able to 'push a button in your brain and you've got reels of it' (pornography) to describe the struggle with mental images, expressing empathy for their fight.

If you're enmeshed, you need no longer be enmeshed. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. And if you're a Christian man who by the grace of God, in spite of all of the rotten influences that were brought to bear upon you in your childhood, in the absence of positive biblical instruction, God has saved you and put your feet in a path of purity, and though you're haunted with the memories, in a sense, some of you don't need to pick up a pornographic flick. You can just push a button in your brain and you've got reels of it.

52:38 - 53:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember, Christ has forgiven and cleansed, and by degrees, he can scrub the walls (of your mind from past memories). By the power of his grace, you can be a man who knows sexual integrity and purity.

Martin shares his personal struggle, thanking God he has no memory of another woman during intimacy with his wife, but acknowledging that some men must struggle with 'horrible flashing upon the walls of your mind of the memory of past experiences,' illustrating the ongoing battle for purity.

And you're the actor in the reels. And my heart breaks for you. I've fought more than once in situations of intimacy with my own wife. I thank God I have no memory of ever having another woman there.

53:15 - 53:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember, Christ has forgiven and cleansed, and by degrees, he can scrub the walls (of your mind from past memories). By the power of his grace, you can be a man who knows sexual integrity and purity.

He uses the metaphor of Christ 'scrubbing the walls' of the mind to describe the gradual cleansing and restorative grace available for those haunted by past sexual memories.

And my heart breaks for some of you that must struggle. But the horrible flashing upon the walls of your mind of the memory of past experiences. But remember, my dear brother, Christ is forgiven and cleansed. And by degrees, he can scrub the walls.

53:28 - 53:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Be your sons and daughters' chief sex educator by the climate that you create in your home of a wholesome, happy, playful, biblical, sexual intimacy with your wife, chastely expressing your affection for her before the c…

Martin uses the vivid example of children walking by 'a mom and dad in a clinch by the kitchen sink' and saying 'oh, you two at it again' to illustrate a wholesome, playful, and chaste expression of marital affection that provides a 'marvelous sex education' for children.

and then carry with you out of your bedroom, that glow which, as they get older, they'll know where it came from. It's wonderful when kids have to walk by a mom and dad in a clinch by the kitchen sink and say, oh, you two at it again. Oh, they love it. And they're getting a marvelous sex education.

54:34 - 54:57 Read in full sermon

The point: As your children get older, be the one that tells your sons and daughters what these strange powers are that are beginning to emerge in their emergent life. Warn them of the sins and the temptations that now lie before t…

He recounts a precious moment with his daughter the week before her marriage, where she snuggled up to him on his bed, and he discreetly discussed the new dimension of her life, illustrating a father being a holy, sanctified sex educator.

And then as they get older, you be the one that tells your sons and daughters what these strange powers are that are beginning to emerge in their emergent life. You be the one to sit down with the book of Proverbs and warn them of the sins and the temptations that now lie before them. I trust you'll have the joy as I did with one of my own daughters the week before she was married. I came down from a counseling session, went into my bedroom to get my nightclothes on, and she was kind of hanging around.

54:57 - 55:35 Read in full sermon

The point: As your children get older, be the one that tells your sons and daughters what these strange powers are that are beginning to emerge in their emergent life. Warn them of the sins and the temptations that now lie before t…

Martin shares his own painful memory of learning 'the facts of life in the street' from a kid, leading him to determine his own children would never get it that way, illustrating the negative impact of parental silence.

It's as vivid as though it were yesterday. I could take you to Stanford, Connecticut to the corner where some kid told me what my father had to do to my mother to get me started. I was ready to go home and beat him up. And I determined never will my kids get it that way.

56:40 - 56:55 Read in full sermon

The point: As your children get older, be the one that tells your sons and daughters what these strange powers are that are beginning to emerge in their emergent life. Warn them of the sins and the temptations that now lie before t…

He describes a Saturday morning devotion with his son, where he used an anatomy chart to explain male physiology, leading to his son's joyful exclamation, 'dad, isn't it great how God's made us?' and a prayer of thanksgiving, illustrating a father's role in biblical sex education.

I can remember the morning when in the Saturdays, when I would have extra devotions with my son going through the book of Proverbs and he began to ask the questions. No longer was he satisfied to know where babies came from. The daddy planted the seed and the mummy wanted to know how the daddy planted. I said, now it's time to sit and go through Susie's babies, that little book.

56:55 - 57:20 Read in full sermon