Personal Holiness and Christlikeness, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin introduces the sermon's theme: a challenge to pursue personal holiness and Christlikeness as a primary ministerial passion, likening it to a primary color from which…

Just as primary colors compose the full spectrum, there are primary ministerial passions (like preaching the Word, personal holiness) that ought to drive and regulate a servant of God.

And as there are three primary. colors, yellow, red, and blue, from which the full spectrum of colors is composed, I believe the scriptures set before us some primary ministerial passions that ought both to drive and to regulate how we think, how we spend our time, how we expend our energies as the servant of God. One of those passions is the ministry of God. One of those passions is the ministry of God.

0:43 - 1:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And when he's done with us, we will have perfected spirits, inhabiting deathless bodies, and the Bible calls that glorification.

Meeting families where some children clearly resemble the parents, while others do not, illustrates that in God's family, all redeemed will bear an unmistakable likeness to Christ.

But amidst all of that beautiful diversity, there will be a family likeness that is absolutely unmistakable. Sometimes when I meet families who've been helped by my ministry and maybe corresponded to them and I've been with them and I've never met them, I meet the whole family and you look at them, sometimes three, four, five, six, some instances recently I went into a church that a number of people have seven to nine kids. And often you look at them and you say, well, in those four, the family likeness is unmistakable. Stick those four kids amongst a hundred kids, set their parents in front o...

16:56 - 17:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He argues that God the Son's redemptive work, through His incarnation and death, was not merely to impute righteousness but to sanctify His church, presenting it holy and without…

Paul's instruction to husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and as they love themselves illustrates the depth of Christ's self-giving love and the practical outworking of love in daily life.

And certainly we have that in Ephesians chapter 5. Paul's taking us bozos who have a wedding ring on and sitting us down and saying, Now listen to me, you men. She's not just there to wash your dirty underwear and your dirty socks and put some meals on the table and plant a kiss on your cheek and give you thrills in bed. You husbands, listen to me.

24:20 - 24:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He argues that God the Son's redemptive work, through His incarnation and death, was not merely to impute righteousness but to sanctify His church, presenting it holy and without…

The immediate, all-consuming care one gives to a pinched finger illustrates the natural, self-preserving love one has for oneself, which should be mirrored in a husband's love for his wife.

And the love that I'm natively. Have for myself. That when my fingers pinched in the door, I immediately tracked it. If I need to cleanse it and put a band-aid on it or go to the emergency room and get stitches, everything else is put aside.

25:18 - 25:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Show love to your wife through an accumulation of 'little tokens' of honor and care, treating her like a queen, as Christ loved the church.

The small acts of courtesy, like a husband opening a car door for his wife, illustrate how love is shown through an accumulation of 'little tokens' rather than just heroic acts, and how these actions serve as an example to others.

They see you get out of the car in the car park. When I have Brits among us, I don't call it parking lot. I call it car park. Automatically kicks in.

35:31 - 35:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He said those words. Are the hypocrites pillow. They are the true believers. Bed of thorns.

Rabbi Duncan's quote, 'Nobody's perfect... are the hypocrites pillow. They are the true believers bed of thorns,' illustrates the profound difference in how genuine believers and hypocrites view their indwelling sin.

And strikingly. He wrote these words. Nobody's perfect.

51:52 - 51:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He to whom the reality of his remaining sin. Is not his greatest grief and burden. Is no Christian.

John Owen's quote, 'He to whom the reality of his remaining sin is not his greatest grief and burden is no Christian,' further emphasizes that a true believer's greatest sorrow is their sin, contrasting with the concerns of health-wealth-prosperity adherents.

John Owen was bold. Enough to say quote. He to whom the reality of his remaining sin. Is not his greatest grief and burden.

52:21 - 52:31 Read in full sermon