Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin

The point: Don't be in a tither about finding out the will of God for the future. Embrace the revealed will of God for the day and live it to the hilt. Keep yourself sensitive to the voice of God.

Martin uses the analogy of an extended two-year visit to someone's home to emphasize the length of Elijah's stay with the widow of Zarephath, highlighting God's timing in moving him on.

Somewhere around two years after his sojourn to the widow at Zarephath. Now, two years in the lifetime of a full three score and ten is not much, but in terms of a visit to somebody's home, that's a long time. If I were to come and pay you a visit and ended up staying two years, I don't know how much you'd appreciate it. Well, the prophet has spent two years in this home. He's developed a very deep and satisfying relationship with the woman and her son, as is indicated in that passage. She has great respect for the prophet. Having seen him in all the different circumstances of domestic life, s...

7:39 - 8:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If the command of God leads us into the jaws of death, we say hallelujah to the jaws we go. The whole concept of self-preservation, is entirely foreign to the spirit of biblical Christianity.

Paul's willingness to suffer and die for Christ (Acts 20:24) is used as an example of the spirit of self-sacrifice that characterized Elijah's obedience in facing Ahab.

all the other marching orders, and the account of Scripture is beautiful in its simplicity, and Elijah went. Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab. Now we read that and say, oh sure, Elijah went to... Do you see what that's saying? Remember, he was a man of what? Of like passions. He had as much natural regard for his skin as you have for yours. And if you know of all the people in the earth that a certain man would kill you if he'd get your hands on you, and of all the people in the world, God says, go stand before him. What would your first reaction be? Well, Elijah was a man of like passion...

14:34 - 15:43 Read in full sermon

The point: We need for God to give us that kind of a spirit as we pray for our families, for our nation, for unsaved people, for God may have to bring the blast and the blight of famine to bring them to their knees to acknowledge t…

Martin quotes an unnamed author's graphic description of the famine's effects—barren land, silent nature, absence of joy—to help the audience visualize the devastation Elijah witnessed.

In very deed, the famine was sore in the land. No waving cornfields or leafy vineyards could be anywhere perceived, not even in the land of Israel. And so the prophet of God, Zarephath, a patch of green appeared to rest his eye with its refreshing verdure. Nor was there any dwelling in the barnyard with its store of plenty as of yore. All was brown and barren desolation. No sounds of joy fell upon his ear. The harp of nature was for the time unstrung. The babbling of brooks, the carol of birds, the lowing of cattle were heard no more. The song of the reaper, the mirth of the vintage, and the j...

18:13 - 19:00 Read in full sermon

The point: How full your heart should be tonight for grace that either used goodness or in the context of the goodness of God led you to repentance or brought some severe stroke upon you. Don't think that that stroke of God's judgm…

The analogy of soft clay hardening in a fiery kiln is used to illustrate how God's judgments, without the Spirit's work, harden sinners in their rebellion rather than softening them.

All you good can't suspect. What happens when you take that soft clay and put it in that fiery kiln? K-I-L-N. What happens to it? Does it melt it? Doesn't melt it. What's it do? It hardens it to the place where when you prick it with your finger it rings. That's all hell will do to sinners.

46:47 - 47:09 Read in full sermon

The point: A godly parent with standards for that child, even though this child may be unregenerate and has a swinish heart. Parents will know where their children are and why they're there and who they're with and when they're bac…

The analogy of swine penned in a clean building, then released into a mud hole by an usher, illustrates how a wicked king like Ahab opens the door for his subjects to indulge their sinful natures in idolatry.

And here's the man whose sin opened the gates and now a whole nation wallows in the fields of idolatry. And I was trying to think of what could illustrate this and the thing that came to my mind was if I had a herd of swine in this building tonight and they were penned up by these walls and there was no mud for them to get into and all the rest, with a little bit of domestic care we could keep them relatively clean and keep this place relatively clean. These walls would act as a barrier to that which their swinish nature would love. But now if one of the ushers, Mr. Mitchell, went to the door ...

50:02 - 50:58 Read in full sermon