Controversy over Tradition & Defilement #2

Driving home: No man can serve two masters. Either he will love the one and hate the other, or hold to the one and despise the other.

Martin uses Jesus' teaching that 'no man can serve two masters' (Matthew 6) to illustrate the impossibility of ultimate allegiance to both human traditions and God's Word, just as one cannot serve both God and money.

Now if ever the words of Jesus were true, they are true here. No man can serve two masters. Either he will love the one and hate the other, or hold to the one and despise the other. Now when Jesus spoke those words in the context of Matthew 6, He is speaking about the very thing that Jesus addressed with the rich young ruler.

14:01 - 14:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen carefully and do not assume that the critique of Roman Catholicism is an attack on individuals, but on the system itself.

The Roman Catholic Church is presented as the 'classic and most monumental example' of elevating human tradition to equal authority with God's Word, leading to the voiding of biblical commands regarding worship and salvation.

And in the case of these scribes and Pharisees, our Lord gives an accurate assessment of them, and in so doing, He underscores this principle that it is impossible to share a bit of allegiance to human traditions and doctrines and at the same time to the word of God. Now, by way of application, let me say the following. The classic and most monumental example of this principle is obviously found in the Roman Catholic Church. Now, there may be some of you here today who by birth and breeding and upbringing and present association are members of the Roman Catholic Church. Will you listen to me c...

15:22 - 16:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Make a choice between the traditions of men and the Word of God.

Martin describes how the Roman Church, like the Pharisees, uses 'waving the wands of a little rationalization and clever shifting of words' to circumvent God's holy law, such as the second commandment against graven images.

It has left the commandment of God, for example, that in religious worship no physical objects of any representation of anything upon heaven and earth are to be made. How does the Roman Church get around it while saying we believe that that commandment is the word of God? See what the scribes and Pharisees do. They take Latin words with fine distinctions and say there is worship and then there is worship. There is one kind of worship that is mere veneration. There is another kind of worship that is the bowing of the heart and the affections, and we are not worshiping the statues, and we are no...

18:41 - 19:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Make a choice between the traditions of men and the Word of God.

The Roman Catholic system's way of salvation is described as 'clogged up with all other issues' (sacraments, obedience) instead of the 'simple issue of the sinner in the nakedness of his need, embracing the Savior in the plenitude of His grace by faith, faith alone'.

It comes to us through the conduit of the sacraments and of obedience to the law. You have a way of salvation that is clogged up with all other issues instead of the simple issue of the sinner in the nakedness of his need, embracing the Savior in the plenitude of His grace by faith, faith alone. A simple supper of remembrance has been turned into a bloodless but real sacrifice. Ministers of the Word have been turned into priests who offer sacrifice.

20:25 - 21:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Make a choice between the traditions of men and the Word of God.

Martin notes that many who leave Roman Catholicism do so because they began studying their Bibles and found that church dogma and practice were not only absent from, but often contrary to, God's Word.

We must make our choice. And this is why most of those who have left the Roman Catholic system will testify that they began to have their eye, and they started studying their Bible, and instead of seeing that the one true Church of Christ was represented in the Roman Catholic Church, after dogma and practice after practice, it only was not found in the Word of God. It was directly counted in the claimants of the Word of God. The application of this principle does not stop with Romanism as a system.

21:33 - 22:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Make a choice between the traditions of men and the Word of God.

This phrase, though well-intentioned, is presented as a man-made tradition in evangelicalism that has become a 'petrified theological concept' which often negates the full biblical emphasis on Christ as Lord, Prophet, and King, not just Savior.

Some years ago, a little phrase began to be used. Accepting Christ, or taking Christ, as one's personal Savior. And there was a good intention in the floating of that terminology. The emphasis fell upon the word personal.

23:27 - 23:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Adopt the psalmist's attitude of gaining understanding through God's precepts, not men's traditions.

Martin critiques certain evangelistic methodologies, including the 'ritual of the counseling room' and 'Protestant absolution' (pronouncing someone saved after a prayer), as lacking biblical warrant and being man-made traditions.

Trust Christ as personal Savior. Some got angry enough to search in their Bibles and then they found that it's not found there. It may be an innocent phrase, but when it becomes a tradition, that petrified concept that negates the word, the concept, and if necessary, the terminology as well, look at the methodology of evangelism, the calling for public decisions, the ritual of the counseling room, asking a few questions, praying a prayer, and then giving what I call Protestant absolution, pronouncing the individual who's thus prayed the prayer put in his mouth by the personal worker saved. Is ...

26:10 - 27:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Adopt the psalmist's attitude of gaining understanding through God's precepts, not men's traditions.

This is presented as an example of human tradition in evangelicalism where holiness becomes a matter of external rules and practices rather than a heart condition.

Trust Christ as personal Savior. Some got angry enough to search in their Bibles and then they found that it's not found there. It may be an innocent phrase, but when it becomes a tradition, that petrified concept that negates the word, the concept, and if necessary, the terminology as well, look at the methodology of evangelism, the calling for public decisions, the ritual of the counseling room, asking a few questions, praying a prayer, and then giving what I call Protestant absolution, pronouncing the individual who's thus prayed the prayer put in his mouth by the personal worker saved. Is ...

26:10 - 27:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Adopt the psalmist's attitude of gaining understanding through God's precepts, not men's traditions.

Martin critiques a system of biblical interpretation (associated with Schofield notes) that 'chops up the Word of God' and negates its teaching for all ages, becoming a tradition of the elders that voids God's Word.

That's the very end. He describes a system of interpretation that chops up the Word of God and says, well, that's only for the Jews and that's not for us, and this is for some other age and not for us, so that though Paul's testament all profitable for teaching, you dare not extract teaching from wholesome. It's not profitable to teach us anything, except what the Jews are going to believe in the millennium. Profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

27:19 - 27:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your reaction when God's Word exposes your sin or challenges your traditions: is it anger or gratitude for conviction?

Martin recounts visiting a Bible school student who became angry and walked off when confronted with plain biblical teaching on election (John 6:37), illustrating the impossibility of neutrality when cherished traditions are challenged by Scripture.

we preached the plain sense of the words, that God has made a free, sovereign loving choice, of a great multitude of sinners, for no foreseen faith, or good works in them, but according to his mere good pleasure, so he had heard some strange things, that we believed, and preached some strange doctrines, and I went to visit this particular, church member, or someone who attended, I don't recall precisely, what their relationship was, and when I went into the, dormitory room, a friend of the church, introduced me to his roommate, and said, Pastor Martin, this is so and so, stuck my hand out, goo...

40:21 - 41:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold; do not be a secularist in your approach to values, standards, and goals for yourself and your children.

Martin refutes the idea that submitting to a biblical lifestyle means being 'a bunch of cookie cutters,' emphasizing that individuality is not an excuse to spare carnality when confronted by God's Word.

and standards, and goals, for yourself, for your children, what do you do with those things, or you dig your heels in, and say I'm not going to be, just one of those, innocuous Trinity people, all cast into the same mold, I'm going to maintain my individuality, my friend listen, don't you hide under the guise, of maintaining your individuality, when what you're trying to do, is spare your carnality, we're not a bunch of cookie cutters, around here, just look around, see the way people are dressed, and the diversity of personality, and the diversity of lifestyles, know your controversies, not w...

46:11 - 47:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid the tendency to spiritual laziness and indifference to earnest study of the Word of God.

Martin describes the flesh's desire for an 'index' or 'approved books' list for every situation, likening it to a Roman Catholic desire for external authority rather than the constant, prayerful engagement with God's Word required for biblical religion.

cows, what kind, of animal, all of that, is done away, and what do we have, in its place, we still have, the embodiment, of God's, moral, men, growing up, we have the specifics, particularly, of those, hortatory, passages, in the epistles, we have, whole segments, in the words, of Jesus, such as, in the sermon, and the mount, but there are, many particulars, in our lives, that are not, particularly, and explicitly, addressed, what are we to do, we are to sit, down, before God, and say, oh God, I want, to please, you, I want, to do, your will, now, in the light, of this principle, and this prec...

52:02 - 53:31 Read in full sermon