Continuance: Graces to Cultivate; Sins to Mortify

Driving home: Given the reality of remaining sin, sin in the human heart, the reality of a wise and vicious devil who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, given the influence of a seducing, bewitching world, this k…

Church unity is likened to a tender, precious, and rare plant that will not grow if unattended, due to hostile environmental elements like sin, the devil, and the world. This emphasizes the need for constant spiritual gardening by the assembly.

We are to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And wherever you have a congregation that ceases to give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit, whatever measure of that unity they have known will by degrees erode. Given the reality of remaining sin, sin in the human heart, the reality of a wise and vicious devil who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, given the influence of a seducing, bewitching world, this kind of unity that we have been describing from the Word of God this week is not a plant that will continue to grow if unattended. T...

12:20 - 13:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray, 'Oh God, give me a fresh baptism of holy forbearance. Increase in my heart the grace, of forbearance.'

Martin describes the common experience of needing sensitive support but encountering an 'utterly insensitive brother or sister,' which can lead to resentment if forbearance is not cultivated. This illustrates the need for mutual forbearance.

Now, he began to grieve, and he started to grieve for his боль, and he did not grieve for his pain, but he had to bear the burden on his heart and with his brethren to know that the best of brethren will at times be insensitive to one another, in a crucial hour of need. When every single cell of the soul is longing for the presence of a sensitive brother or sister, that brother or sister who seems to be the utter embodiment of insensitivity will be placed in our path. There are some people who seem to have a very, very sensitive antennae, to pick up the vibrations of a hurting soul. Others see...

19:24 - 20:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray, 'Oh God, give me a fresh baptism of holy forbearance. Increase in my heart the grace, of forbearance.'

He recounts a situation where a believer in great need encounters someone crassly unsharing or uncaring, highlighting how this can cause irritation and fissures in unity without the grace of forbearance.

There are others that are relatively unsharing and uncaring. They have many virtues, but for one reason, they've not cultivated the virtue of a ready and an open hand. And just at a time when you were in great need and you were spreading that need before God and trusting the Lord in His own inscrutable way to meet it, someone will express something in word or deed that is a crass expression of unsharing and uncaringness. Well, what are you going to do?

20:49 - 21:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray, 'Oh God, give me a fresh baptism of holy forbearance. Increase in my heart the grace, of forbearance.'

Martin describes how personal suffering can make a sensitive person unable to respond to others' needs, likening it to being 'shut up in that cocoon that the old writers called the spiritual struggles.' This explains why mutual forbearance is needed, even for unintentional insensitivity.

Please increase it in my brethren or they're never going to get along with me. For remember, you too have been insensitive at the point where you hurt someone else. And you have been unresponsive to their patent need, not willfully, but through the various actings of indwelling sin. And sometimes, because your own heart may be so torn and broken by God's dark providence, with your own life, that you are shut up in that cocoon that the old writers called the spiritual struggles are so all-consuming that a man who at other times would be highly sensitive finds himself unable to do anything more ...

22:04 - 23:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is a difference between the internal disposition of forgiveness and the actual conferral of forgiveness for a particular misdeed. Now, when we have been wronged, we cannot confer, forgiveness until the person who h…

Jesus' cry, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,' is presented not as a conferral of forgiveness but as an expression of His disposition to forgive, urging believers to adopt a similar disposition.

If there were no disposition, there'd be no conferral. And when Jesus hung upon the cross, I'm amazed at how some Calvinist dancer jig around that text and try to prove that everyone there who heard it was ultimately saved at Pentecost or something like that. Or some other nonsense. When Jesus cried out, Father, and for they know,

26:28 - 26:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Manifest a disposition of readiness and willingness to forgive, seeking to gain the brother who has wronged you.

The parable of the unforgiving servant is used to illustrate the vastness of God's forgiveness to us compared to any wrong done by a brother, underscoring the necessity of a forgiving spirit.

If we would endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, to cultivate the grace of mutual forgiveness, forgiveness as the prevailing disposition of our hearts, no matter what has been done to us, and if not, we must go to the yoke of brotherhood. We do not. We go with the Spirit that seeks to have the privilege of conferring forgiveness upon him as he repents, or in the language of Matthew 18, we seek to gain, not beat up on the brother. He did me wrong. He may have wronged, but oh, in the language or in the thought pattern of Matthew 18, what is the debt of one servant to an...

30:15 - 31:41 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details seven graces: mutual forbearance (Ephesians 4), quick, unreserved, mutual forgiveness (Ephesians 4, Luke 17, Matthew 18), mutual biblical love (Colossians 3, 1…

Martin shares a personal anecdote of his mother teaching him and his siblings to consider multiple interpretations for someone's actions and to assume the best until proven otherwise. This illustrates how to cultivate biblical love that 'believes all things' and 'hopes all things.'

When there are possible ways to interpret a deed, not the worst. ...to drum this into your children as my dear mother drummed it into me. You'd come running in, Ma, and this because...

35:48 - 36:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate the grace of love that covers a multitude of sins, rather than magnifying faults.

True biblical love is likened to a 'blanket factory' in the heart, covering brethren's faults, while a lack of love is a 'magnifying glass factory,' blowing faults out of proportion. This vividly contrasts unity-fostering and unity-destroying attitudes.

Covers a multitude of sins. You see, only the angel does that. But when he's talking about that love in a church, it will always set up a blanket factory. The heart of every Christian suffused with biblical love has a little blanket factory and it's always making blankets and when it sees the faults of its brethren, it throws the blankets over and hides it from him.

38:17 - 38:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Practice courtesy and good manners as an application of the grace of mutual preference.

Simple acts of courtesy, like holding a door or a chair, are presented as practical applications of mutual preference and honor, demonstrating how 'little things' cultivate this grace.

May God grant that we will cultivate the grace of mutual preference. Now, you children, listen to me. That's why some people think, well, little things like courtesy, they're just customs. When you think of that woman who's in front of you and she's going to get to the door ahead of you if you walk at the same pace and you quicken your pace to get there and say, Sorry, ma'am, I'll open the door.

44:05 - 44:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Receive one another with all your hearts, without holding people off until they 'shape up' in certain areas, once a credible profession of faith is made.

God's reception of believers is compared to the father's embrace of the prodigal son—immediate, unreserved, and full of acceptance, not conditional or gradual. This illustrates how believers should mutually accept one another.

That isn't how he received me. He received me as the Father in the parable of the prodigal son.

47:18 - 47:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Receive one another with all your hearts, without holding people off until they 'shape up' in certain areas, once a credible profession of faith is made.

Martin shares how black members joining his church reported feeling 'genuine, unfeigned acceptance,' contrasting it with places where people 'fell all over themselves to prove they weren't prejudiced.' This illustrates the power of true mutual acceptance.

When God first began to bring a number of blacks into our assembly, after having had a black man as one of our elders, not as an assistant pastor, but as one of the elders, co-pastor, and our people evidenced that in their heart they were prepared to look to a black man as their shepherd, when God began to grant an influx of blacks into the membership, I began to probe and I began to ask questions because I wanted to learn from my brethren. And I said, Tell me, what was it that made you come back the second time? You came out of Newark where all you knew of religion was typical black cultural ...

49:52 - 51:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Look for every opportunity to do a servant's deed, even small ones, to cultivate a servant's heart.

Martin observes brethren walking past dropped napkins without picking them up, using this 'ludicrous' example to highlight how a servant's heart looks for every small opportunity to serve, not just grand gestures.

Then be last. Take the place of serving your brethren. It's interesting to watch. I've watched in the cafeteria no fewer than about seven or eight times this week.

53:36 - 53:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Look for every opportunity to do a servant's deed, even small ones, to cultivate a servant's heart.

Jesus' act of washing His disciples' feet is presented as the ultimate example of a servant's deed, emphasizing that true greatness comes from taking the place of serving others.

He was there with you. He was there with you. He was there with you. He laid aside his disciples.

54:24 - 54:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Offer yourself to serve brethren in practical ways, like helping a widow or someone who has just moved, without needing an announcement.

When a sin is too persistent to be covered by the 'blanket' of love and keeps 'working a hole' and 'sprouting' through, it signifies that the time has come for biblical resolution of differences. This metaphor guides when to confront.

the things that foster unity according to my Bible. Submitting yourselves one to another, the grace of mutual service. And then the seventh, grace that must be cultivated among us if we would maintain and grow in our unity is the grace of mutual biblical resolution of differences. The grace of mutual biblical resolution of differences. If the sins are such that if you try to throw the blanket over it, it keeps working a hole in the blanket and growing up and staring you in the face. And you throw another blanket over it, and you throw another blanket over it, and you throw another blanket over...

55:49 - 56:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Deal with differences in a biblical manner: if your brother sins, go tell him his fault between you and him alone.

Martin describes his practice of stopping people who call him about a conflict before they name names, insisting they first go to the offending brother or sister directly, illustrating the biblical principle of Matthew 18:15.

Don't tell it to an elder. How many hundreds of times through the years have I had to say to people when they call me and say, Pastor, I don't know what to do in this situation. Well what is it? Well, someone has done, I said, oh, don't say anymore. Don't mention the name. Don't mention the thing. I want to ask a simple question. Have you gone to them? No. Well, do you need some light as to how to go? In what way to go? Don't mention names? Don't mention the situation? I'll be glad to give you the biblical principles that ought to guide you, but at least Jack that's there. Well, more than anyt...

58:02 - 58:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Constantly mortify the sin of pride, which leads to contention and division.

Martin describes a proud individual who, despite lacking full information, believes they know better than church leaders and criticizes decisions, sowing division. This illustrates how pride leads to contention.

When a man has too high an opinion of his notions, his perspectives, A woman, she knows better than the combined wisdom of the elders and the deacons in an administrative decision. Of course, she hasn't been privy to the 8, 10, 12, 14 hours of fact-finding and prayer and wrestling, but she knows instinctively there's a better way to do it. And that man, he has not been recognized as one who's spiritually minded, who thinks in biblical categories, who has a deposit of divinely given wisdom and holy sagacity. That's why he's not been recognized as an elder or deacon.

62:35 - 63:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Constantly mortify the sin of pride, which leads to contention and division.

Unmortified pride is said to make one 'most like the devil,' who is the devil because of pride. This emphasizes the severe spiritual danger of pride.

Never are we more like the devil than when we have unmortified pride in our hearts. Never forget it. The devil is the devil because of pride.

63:47 - 63:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Mortify the sin of carnal personal ambition, remembering it is Christ's church, not ours.

The example of Diotrephes from 3 John 9-10 is used to illustrate carnal personal ambition, showing how a desire for preeminence leads to division and rejection of brethren and even apostles.

Shepherd the flock of God which he has purchased with his own blood. And what's the particular area of his concern? I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you not sparing the flock wolves from without but from among your own selves. Did he mean the Ephesian church in general or did he mean in the language and the context would bear it from among the ranks of their own leaders? These were elders he was speaking to. From among your own selves arise speaking perverse things. Why? In order to draw away the disciples after them. They feel they don't have a prominent eno...

65:00 - 65:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Mortify the sin of carnal personal ambition, remembering it is Christ's church, not ours.

A sinfully loose tongue and a carnally opened ear are called 'evilish twins,' emphasizing that one cannot do damage without the other, and both must be mortified to prevent disunity.

And the two always go together. The activity of a sinfully loose tongue and the carnal opened ear. These are what I call best of the best. And the best of the best. And the best of the best. And the best of the best. And the best of the best.

67:59 - 68:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Guard your tongues and your ears from sinfully loose talk and carnally opened ears.

James' analogy of a small match starting a great forest fire is used to illustrate the immense damage caused by loose tongues and open ears in local churches.

You're judged not only to do with your tongue. Horrible disunity in local churches. When people have had carnal ears open to carnal tongues. And as James says, behold how great a forest fire is started by a little match.

70:42 - 71:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Cry to God to put to death unjust prejudice and suspicion based on race, ethnic background, or motives.

Peter's withdrawal from eating with Gentiles when Jews arrived (Galatians 2) is used as a historical example of unjust prejudice causing division, even years after Pentecost.

Years after the Lord took him to the household of Cornelius. Peter was sitting there and eating away with Gentiles enjoying pork chops and hot dogs that weren't kosher. Having a grand time. Until some of his Finkelstein and Rubenstein friends showed up and sit with the Jews and eat kosher food.

71:42 - 72:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Mortify the sin of allowing divisive people to remain in the church by pursuing biblical discipline.

Biblically balanced church discipline is likened to the spiritual body's immune system, designed to react and reject invading 'bacteria or viruses' (sinful, divisive people) to maintain health and unity. A breakdown leads to 'spiritual aids' and death.

And under the guise of being loving and patient, many church divisions and the absence of unity are godly. God's judgment on churches that would not do the dirty work of biblically balanced church discipline. It is the divine deposit of the spiritual body's immune system and as God has given to the physical body, those things that are triggered when invading bacteria or viruses would destroy us, the body reacts and rejects. So spirit directed, biblically based church discipline is the deposit in the spiritual body of a divinely conceived immune system. And if the immune system breaks down and ...

74:05 - 75:18 Read in full sermon