God, the Source and Preserver of Truth

Driving home: He is not standing to cast dispersions upon the activities of his Father in a bygone generation. I and my Father are one.

Martin quotes Canon Farrar, a Christian scholar, who dismisses the 2 Kings 1 account as 'Elijah myths,' illustrating how some commentators try to explain away difficult biblical passages that challenge their concept of God.

shall we bid fire to come down from heaven? Our Lord rebukes them. What clearer evidence do you need than to prove that God in a sense is no longer that kind of a God. And there's a man of the stature of Canon Farrar one of the greatest Christian scholars ever to adorn the church especially of a bygone day and reading his commentary in the Expositor's Bible on this whole chapter he ends up in essence just explaining it all away until ultimately he says this is just some Elijah myths and the German critics have helped us by letting us throw this chapter out and not be bothered with trying to ju...

6:57 - 7:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is not standing to cast dispersions upon the activities of his Father in a bygone generation. I and my Father are one.

Martin describes the disciples' desire for fire to come down as motivated by their 'bent noses' (pride and offense) rather than Elijah's burning desire for God's vindication, clarifying Jesus's rebuke in Luke 9.

No the problem here was that the disciples thought because they pronounced Elijah's words they were activated by Elijah's motives and that's where the problem lay. No no their noses were bent. They were the great successful preachers. Everyone ought to welcome us and here's a town that doesn't throw out the red carpet.

8:20 - 8:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: our God is not he was but he is a consuming fire and the fire of his wrath increases in terms of the measure of the revelation of God and he's made of himself

An analogy of a son despising Moses' law and dying without compassion is used to illustrate how much sorer the punishment will be for those who despise the Son of God and the Spirit of grace.

a man that said it not Moses law died without compassion at the word of two or three witnesses here is a son that says I don't like things around here I'm not going to obey my mom and dad I want freedom and the father says son the Lord said through Moses if one of your sons will not be obedient and is a stubborn rebellious son you are to bring the witnesses take him before the elders of Israel there to pronounce judgment upon him and stone shall be heaped upon him till he dies son don't dare go on in the course of disobedience the result will be judgment and death and he says ah come off it da...

13:12 - 13:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin shifts to God's concern to demonstrate and preserve His exclusive claim as the only source of truth, as highlighted by the repeated question in 2 Kings 1: 'Is it because…

Martin vividly imagines the messengers' journey to Ekron, discussing their mission with wives, kiddies, and elders, to highlight the pervasive lie that there could be another source of truth besides Jehovah.

and kiddies say where are you going daddy oh we are going over there to Ekron the king is sending us over there yeah what for well you know you have heard about that god over there Baal Ziba the lord of the flies the god that supposedly controls the activities of the flies and he lets them multiply if he is angry and he keeps them away if he is smiling well the king wants us to go and he begins to think what there must be another god besides Jehovah that is a source of truth another god besides Jehovah that controls the destinies of man and therefore can what pronounce with certainty whether t...

22:05 - 22:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not go to 'Baal Zibub' (worldly sources) for answers regarding domestic life or moral standards.

Martin contrasts the difficulty of finding 'rotten, salacious literature' in his youth with its easy availability in respectable drugstores today, illustrating the increased moral decay and brazenness of sin in the current generation.

I remember when I was a kid, if anybody in our school wanted rotten, salacious literature, he had to know the right connections to get it. Not now. The most respectable drugstore, you can go in and pick up a handful of Playboy magazines and walk out with them, even if you're 13.

32:03 - 32:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon concludes by highlighting God's beautiful ability to restore His children to spiritual vigor after decline, using Elijah's pre-wilderness ministry in 2 Kings 1 as an…

Martin shares a personal reflection on the common experience of longing for 'better days' of spiritual fervor and zeal, setting up the theme of God's ability to restore His children.

And dear ones I thrill when I read this because the experience of every servant of God and every child of God is that rarely is he in a state when he can't think of better days. And he looks back and says oh I think of those days. I think of those days at the right hand of the Most High. When love for Christ burned.

45:34 - 45:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon concludes by highlighting God's beautiful ability to restore His children to spiritual vigor after decline, using Elijah's pre-wilderness ministry in 2 Kings 1 as an…

Martin uses the metaphor of 'snuggling up to Elijah under his juniper tree' to describe feeling discouraged and weary, contrasting it with joining Elijah in his bold denunciations of evil, to illustrate a period of spiritual decline.

I feel much more like a young man now snuggling up to Elijah under his juniper tree than joining him in his denunciation of the Ahabs that would stand against the purposes of God. Well this chapter ought to be an encouragement to us for it reveals God's ability to restore his children to spiritual vigor after a period of decline. And how did God do it? Well the long range process we've already preached on for a number of nights and I'm not going back to all of that.

46:17 - 46:48 Read in full sermon