The New Testament Testimony, Part 1

The point: Ensure God's work is done God's way for maximum blessing now and for maximum reward in the day of judgment.

Martin uses the terms 'pregnant' and 'with child' to illustrate his preference for older, more chaste terminology, connecting it to the congregation's growing number of young children.

But then secondly, the peculiar circumstances of this particular congregation demand that we think this issue through. At last count, we have approximately 100 children six years old and under. And that number is growing all the time. If you don't believe me, I could call out the names of a few women who evidently have not gone on an eating binge but are in the wonderfully changed and wonderfully chaste old terminology and I love it much better than simply saying pregnant.

19:50 - 20:30 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin invites the congregation to raise immediate questions, addressing concerns such as church membership as a means of grace, standards of maturity, separation of baptism and…

He uses the example of a child falling in mud versus a 30-year-old man doing the same to illustrate the natural distinction in culpability between children and adults, raising the question of whether the church should apply similar distinctions in discipline.

What is discipline? Is discipline to administer to the young member as opposed to the older member? And if, in fact, you would have to discipline, how would it affect the parents of that child who are adults? Yeah. All right. So the whole question, knowing that we treat children differently from adults in terms of their culpability. In other words, if one of your kids after this meeting goes out and falls down, goes running around the cars and falls down the mud and gets mud on his britches, you regard that child's action a little bit differently than you would from a 30-year-old man who went ...

28:52 - 29:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin invites the congregation to raise immediate questions, addressing concerns such as church membership as a means of grace, standards of maturity, separation of baptism and…

Martin imagines a 'feel-o-meter' to measure the intensity of congregants' feelings on the sensitive topic, emphasizing the need for the Berean spirit despite strong predispositions.

And I think that's a very important issue. And I think that's a very important issue. And if I had a feel-o-meter right now that could measure the depth or the height or the breadth, the intensity, the amount of wattage with which some of you have very strong feelings one way or another, sitting there now, you're saying, well, I'm not sure where Pastor goes. But if he goes that direction, I'm going to find it hard. And others saying, well, I wish I could go around and lay the feel-o-meter and take a register. I think it would be very, very interesting. But all I plead for is the spirit of the ...

30:09 - 30:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin invites the congregation to raise immediate questions, addressing concerns such as church membership as a means of grace, standards of maturity, separation of baptism and…

He recounts the founding spirit of Trinity Church in 1967, where 50 people were determined to follow Scripture in every facet of church life, even if it meant challenging long-held practices, to underscore the importance of biblical fidelity.

we began meeting in the Women's Club of Caldwell back in January of 1967. There was one passionate concern, and it was this. Here were a group of some 50 people, determined that in every facet of church life, they would go wherever the hand of Scripture led them. If they had to kick practice of years in the teeth, if they had to trample over feelings, and from the human side, if there's anything that God has been pleased to use as the framework of pouring out his blessing upon us, it has been the maintenance of that spirit. And that is what we plead for as we begin to address the Bible. Questi...

30:56 - 31:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Is there any recorded instance of a minor ever being called a disciple, being baptized, or being received into the number of the visible church?

Martin humorously acknowledges his poor handwriting on the board, coveting Pastor Nichols' gift, to lighten the mood and connect with the audience.

And for the next few weeks, you'll have to put up with my terrible, terrible writing on the board. There are many gifts God didn't give me, and this is one that's evident to the whole world that I never got. The ability to write on a board. I covet Pastor Nichols' gift in this area, as in some other areas as well, but I hope your eyeballs will stand the strain.

35:47 - 36:11 Read in full sermon