Personal Holiness and Christlikeness, Part 2

The point: Pursue personal holiness and likeness to Christ as a primary ministerial passion.

Martin uses the analogy of 'leakage' from week to week in sermon retention to highlight the benefit of a conference setting where messages are delivered closer together, reducing the need for extensive review.

One of the great blessings of a conference like this, when one has more than one address to give, is that we don't have to fear the amount of leakage that goes on with our people from week to week. There's a whole week between the Lord's Days in which, if we're doing consecutive preaching or building a structure of topical expository messages, we have to assume there's been considerable leakage, our reviews have to be extensive, etc. But I hope there was not too much leakage, if anything, in the past 35 minutes. I sought to persuade your conscience

0:18 - 1:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Be committed to feeding your souls upon your Bibles simply as Christian men, without conscious thought of preparing food for others.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about his internal struggle at 6 AM to prioritize sermon preparation over personal Bible reading, illustrating the ongoing battle against remaining sin even for a seasoned pastor.

You bet your boots I'm telling you that. Because I had to tell myself that this morning. The rationalization started with me at 6 o'clock or 10 minutes to 6 this morning. You've got to preach two sermons.

6:01 - 6:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Have consistent, structured plans for working through the entirety of Scripture over a given course of time, and a method to check your consistency.

Martin recounts an old man of God's definition of a rut ('nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out') to emphasize the need to alter devotional plans to avoid stagnation.

Like one old man of God said to me, brother, he spoke like that. You know what a rut is? I said, I'm not sure. Let me tell you.

13:10 - 13:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Determine to maintain the habit and the spirit of secret prayer.

Martin describes using a lead pencil to mark dates in his Bible as a 'reality check' to keep himself honest about his devotional reading, illustrating a practical method for self-accountability.

Do you have any method to check up on yourself? I find a lead pencil with dates coming off the end of it. It's a wonderful reality check. I say, oh my, two days have gone and I haven't read my chapter in the New Testament.

13:40 - 13:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second means is secret prayer, stressing the importance of both the habit and the spirit of prayer. Martin highlights the duty to pray, the need to pray in the Holy Spirit…

Martin uses the example of a wife asking if an action was done out of duty or love to explain that gospel duty and delight in prayer are not mutually exclusive but joined by God.

And He says, we ought to pray and not to faint. And surely, few things will keep up our commitment to the habit of secret prayer more effectively than the remembrance it is our gospel duty to pray. Now, some of you have had this experience. You do something for your wife and she says, now dear, did you do that because it was your duty or because you loved me?

16:40 - 17:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously the injunction to pray without ceasing and find delight in coming boldly to the throne of grace.

Martin shares how his co-pastor, Jonathan Ashfield Blaze, taught him to ask the Holy Spirit for 'prayers to pray,' illustrating a deeper engagement with prayer beyond mere recitation.

And when Jude says in Jude 20 that we are to pray in the Holy Spirit as well as keep ourselves in the love of God. If there's a praying in the Spirit there must be a praying out of the Spirit. And we have the wonderful promise if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. I learned to ask the Holy Spirit to give me prayers to pray years ago when my dear Jonathan Pastor Ashfield Blaze was co-pastor at Trinity.

18:26 - 19:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: when a man can stand in the pulpit and preach the word of god that truth which is according to godliness while knowingly having a conscious controversy in an ethical issue registering in his conscience...that is to put o…

Martin quotes John Owen (gist) on the danger of a preacher knowingly having an ethical controversy while preaching, calling it 'the high road to apostasy' to underscore the vital importance of a clear conscience.

you confess the sin to the man or woman congregation against whom you've sinned and you maintain a good conscience or you thrust it aside still holding to your orthodoxy but after a while the truth which is according to godliness is such you can't continue to hold it to your breast because it's constantly pinching that accusing conscience and so eventually you find reason to give up the truth in order to find some kind of peace to your troubled conscience that's what happens that's why john owen perceptively said i'll never forget the first time i read it's not a verbatim quote but this is the...

28:17 - 29:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: when a man can stand in the pulpit and preach the word of god that truth which is according to godliness while knowingly having a conscious controversy in an ethical issue registering in his conscience...that is to put o…

Martin shares an anecdote about a man who taught his children the difference between 'I'm sorry' (a feeling) and confessing sin and asking for forgiveness, illustrating the need for precise, biblical repentance.

from all unrighteousness and when under the pressures of the ministry your wife comes with some piddling little thing as far as you're concerned and you respond with an irritated word you're you don't go back up in your study or out and make that call until you've turned to her and said dear i responded in a way that was unchristlike and i'm grieved and i've asked god's forgiveness will you forgive me not mumbling under your breath as you go out to do i'm sorry dear what's i'm sorry do that just tells me how you feel there's a man sitting here when his kids would come and say dad i'm sorry he ...

31:13 - 31:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin dedicates significant time to the third means: cultivating a biblically instructed, tender, blood-washed, non-accusing conscience before God and men. He expounds Acts 24:16…

Martin confesses a personal incident where he lied from the pulpit to cover embarrassment about a hymn choice, then had to publicly confess it, illustrating the painful but necessary act of maintaining a conscience void of offense to man.

times having to eat crow feet and all before hundreds of people can i ever forget the time when this building was not yet constructed only that phase one and i was leading a morning service and i gave out the wrong hymn and in my embarrassment i conjured up a lie as easy as breathing and i said excuse me for that was a hymn for tonight and i inadvertently we were singing the hymn and my conscience is screaming my son you've lied to cover your shame and embarrassment you've lied you're going to try to

32:42 - 33:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin dedicates significant time to the third means: cultivating a biblically instructed, tender, blood-washed, non-accusing conscience before God and men. He expounds Acts 24:16…

Martin recounts inadvertently stumbling upon scandalous information about Brett Favre online and immediately repenting of 'mental voyeurism,' illustrating the need for a tender conscience regarding even fleeting exposure to sin and the desire to know about others' moral failures.

of god to own my life labor with grip and power i've got to have a conscience void of offense to man as well as to god the other day i try to read the local my wife kids me i call it the local grand rapids press their little mickey mouse paper you can read through from beginning to end in about 20 minutes anything worth reading in it but i still keep up on the sports page they just have little footnotes about the new york teams but everything's the detroit teams and i was reading about that monday night game between the minnesota vikings and the jets because i'd still have some interest of the...

34:09 - 34:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and strive to have a good conscience regarding your physical appearance and self-control.

Martin uses the analogy of living in a community where abusive alcohol is the prevailing sin and how a Christian's clear eyes and steady gait would stand out, applying it to the national sin of obesity and the need for pastors to model self-control in their physical appearance.

In nothing giving offense, let the ministry be not blamed. Obesity is a national sin. The statistics are clear. Suppose you lived in a community where the prevailing sin was abusive alcohol.

45:48 - 46:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Consciously cultivate Christ-like graces of character, diligently adding to your faith the fruit of the Spirit, and seeking feedback from your spouse.

Martin describes a practice he and his former wife had called 'judgment days,' where they would give each other feedback on areas needing change to become more Christ-like, illustrating a practical way to cultivate graces and pursue holiness with accountability.

Start by encouraging me, dear. Where do you see some fruit that's more than just a tad beyond the nubby little thing that follows after the blossom falls? Now, dear, lay it on me. For years, my former wife and I would go off for a few days down to the shore.

50:57 - 51:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Prioritize family time and nurture your children, understanding that ministerial duties do not negate your responsibilities as a husband and father.

Martin shares his practice as a young pastor of turning off the phone for two hours each evening to prioritize family time, illustrating the principle of universal obedience to generic Christian duties over perceived ministerial demands.

It meant for me as a young pastor, we had only one phone in the house. We'd turn the phone off from 5.30 to 7.30.

56:00 - 56:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Prioritize family time and nurture your children, understanding that ministerial duties do not negate your responsibilities as a husband and father.

Martin fondly recalls dancing with his children to Don Cossack music and hiding pennies for them, illustrating simple ways to make family time special and show children their importance.

My kids who see everybody having their pound of flesh from dad and my wife, of their, they needed to know we're important enough that dad marks out two hours in the evening for us. And that's when we had family worship. And that's when we danced. I remember one of the records we had was the Don Cossack, that Russian dancing group, an orchestra.

56:21 - 56:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes by reiterating the importance of holiness for ministerial success, quoting Robert Murray McShane on likeness to Jesus as an 'awful weapon' and Spurgeon on…

Martin quotes Robert Murray McShane's letter to a ministerial friend, emphasizing that 'it is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God,' to underscore the power of personal holiness in ministry.

May we take the time to memorize and pray into the texture of our inner life the memorable words of the saintly Robert Murray McShane writing to a ministerial friend. He said, and I quote, in great measure, according to the purity and perfection of the individual, instrument will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.

58:40 - 59:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes by reiterating the importance of holiness for ministerial success, quoting Robert Murray McShane on likeness to Jesus as an 'awful weapon' and Spurgeon on…

Martin concludes with Spurgeon's quote that 'holiness in a minister is at once his chief, necessity, and his goodliest ornament,' reinforcing the sermon's central theme.

And I can do no better than conclude the sermon with the words of Spurgeon, who wrote, quote, holiness in a minister is at once his chief, necessity, and his goodliest ornament.

59:20 - 59:36 Read in full sermon