Three Specific Applications

In this part of the sermon: The sermon begins by revisiting Mark 1:21-28, recounting Jesus' authoritative teaching and the subsequent casting out of a demon in the Capernaum synagogue, which astonished the…

Martin clarifies his previous sermon's translation of Jesus' command to the demon ('shut up') by comparing it to a father sternly telling a child to 'quiet,' emphasizing the authority without condoning disrespectful speech among people.

spoke in two terse words of command, be muddled and come out of him. And in seeking to expound that passage last week and trying to bring into Americanese something of the force of the original, I said that we could well conceive of the Lord Jesus saying to that demon, shut up and come out. And afterwards, on the way home, my own family said, you know what's going to happen, honey? My wife said, honey. The other kid said, dad. They said, you know, they're going to have kids go home and start saying shut up to one another. And when their parents rebuked and say, but pastor said it when he was p...

5:13 - 6:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The miracle has no inherent power to change the human heart. The reason men do not believe is not that the message of the gospel is not the message of the gospel.

This analogy illustrates that no amount of external 'miracles' (levitating spinach, leaves arranging themselves) will make a child eat spinach with delight if they have an inherent aversion to it. This parallels how miracles don't overcome men's aversion to the gospel.

or attempt to. And always pick on poor spinach. You know, if spinach is not good for you, spinach could speak. I'm sure spinach would say, I've gotten a raw deal. Because whenever people want to use illustrations about a food kids don't like, they pick on poor spinach. Now, I wouldn't pick on spinach. If I were setting the stage, I'd pick on something like maybe parsnips. But a lot of you wouldn't know what parsnips are. So we'll talk about spinach. Here's a kid. He has got a tremendous aversion to spinach. Just the name spinach makes him go yuck.

24:36 - 25:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember that doubts, fears, and apprehensions are the devil's 'bloodhounds' trying to bring you back into bondage and slavery if you allow them to track you down.

Drawing on the historical image of bloodhounds tracking runaway slaves, Martin describes the doubts, fears, and apprehensions that come to a soul contemplating Christ as the 'devil's bloodhounds' trying to call back those he is losing from his bondage.

And the devil knows if that goes on, he's going to lose you. And as one very perceptive commentator has said, he only made a little illusion, but I want to amplify it into a full-blown illustration. Some of you have read in the history of our own nation that before the slaves were freed by national proclamation, there was a whole system of seeking to have slaves leave their masters, go in the underground contacts that would bring them into areas, free states where they would not be, under their masters' heel. And it was often the case that, or sometimes the case, that the owner of those slaves...

42:29 - 43:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The devil's intention is always to destroy his subjects, and he will resort to fanaticism if he cannot lead people to skepticism, as seen in historical revivals. Believers must be…

The incident in Ephesus where a demon-possessed girl taunted believers is used as an example of the devil stirring up opposition when God's word is doing a mighty work.

You remember what happened? God was doing a mighty work there at Ephesus and the devil couldn't stand it. So one day he stirs up this girl whom he possesses and enables her to be a little fortune teller. And she starts taunting the people of God.

45:03 - 45:17 Read in full sermon

The point: If we are not intensified in our watchfulness and prayer, we will be vulnerable to an angry devil who is losing his subjects because of the preaching of the word.

Martin cites historical examples of emotional excesses in revivals, such as blabbering called 'tongues' or barking like dogs, to illustrate how the devil can lead people into fanaticism when his kingdom is invaded by authoritative preaching.

Until finally Paul got mad one day and turned around and he rebuked that evil spirit and drove it out. And this has happened again and again in seasons of revival right at the point when it seems that multitudes are about to be swept into the kingdom and what will happen? The devil will stir up some emotionally weak person who mistakes the impulses of that weak emotional constitution for some fresh inspiration and then they begin to blabber and call it speaking in tongues.

45:18 - 45:46 Read in full sermon

The point: If we are not intensified in our watchfulness and prayer, we will be vulnerable to an angry devil who is losing his subjects because of the preaching of the word.

The tragic history of Edward Irving is mentioned as a 'living monument' to how emotional weakness can be mistaken for fresh inspiration, leading to fanaticism when the devil's kingdom is threatened.

Read the tragic history of Edward Irving. If you want a living monument of that it will make you weep. And in other so-called revivals people began to feel strange feelings and began to bark like dogs and they called it barking in the spirit. We laugh and say ridiculous.

45:53 - 46:08 Read in full sermon