Controversy over Tradition & Defilement #3

Driving home: It is not your imports which defile you, but your exports.

Martin uses the analogy of 'imports' and 'exports' to vividly explain Jesus' teaching that defilement comes from within (exports) rather than from without (imports), making the concept more accessible.

Whether it was a sacrifice for sin or a sacrifice of praise, he had to go through a ritual of cleansing. So in the minds of these scribes and Pharisees and the Jews to whom our Lord says, this matter of defilement was a matter of the whole issue of communion with God, of admission into and participation in the specific activities of divine worship and communion with the covenant God. Now in this setting, our Lord issues a central concern. And as I labored to state it in the simplest terms, possible I came across a phrase in one of the commentators who was quoting an ancient commentator. And th...

18:33 - 19:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: sin is moral madness

Jesus' explanation of the digestive process and bodily elimination serves as an example to illustrate that physical food cannot defile the spiritual heart, only the physical body.

but into his belly the Greek word is the one from which we get our English word colon koila it goes into the digestive system the entirety of it and when all of the processes of digestion of the food extraction of the nutrients has occurred then the waste matters go out in the normal processes of bodily elimination Jesus gave them a brief summary of what we would call the obvious non-technical non-medically described process of digestion and elimination that's what he did in a very blunt straightforward but not coarse or indiscreet manner he says you don't perceive my saying alright let's just...

24:58 - 26:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I wish that such idle talkers would remember that they may be damned for their thoughts and that they and that instead of evil thoughts being less sinful than evil acts it may sometimes happen that in the thought the man…

Martin quotes Spurgeon's commentary on 'evil thoughts' to emphasize their seriousness, explaining how thoughts are the 'eggs of words and actions' and can incur all the guilt of actual transgressions, leading to a lifetime of curse.

evil thoughts proceed and in the structure in the original that phrase is set off as the general phrase evil thoughts proceed and all the others as it were manifest manifestations of the actings of the evil dialoguing of the human heart Spurgeon commenting on that phrase says our Lord begins with things that are lightly regarded among men evil thoughts we shall not be hanged for our thoughts cries one I wish that such idle talkers would remember that they may be damned for their thoughts and that they and that instead of evil thoughts being less sinful than evil acts it may sometimes happen th...

30:52 - 32:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire by spiritual illumination an accurate assessment of the state of your own heart by nature, recognizing its inherent depravity from conception.

Martin uses the vivid metaphor of the heart as a 'veritable cesspool' and a 'pressured artesian well of filth' to convey the depth and inherent nature of human depravity from birth.

sobriety of the coming judgment he says hear and understand now what are we to understand in the light of this saying of our Lord well first of all this is what we're to understand you must acquire by spiritual illumination an accurate assessment of the state of your own heart by nature you must acquire by spiritual illumination an accurate accurate assessment of the state of your own heart by nature. Now what must a man do to have a heart which is a veritable cesspool turned into an artesian well of filth? What must he do to have a heart that produces all these things? For from within, out of...

38:15 - 39:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire by spiritual illumination an accurate assessment of the state of your own heart by nature, recognizing its inherent depravity from conception.

Martin references David's confession in Psalm 51, recalling his adultery and murder, to illustrate that even in later life, David traced his capacity for such sins back to his conception, demonstrating the innate depravity of the heart.

and girls do? What must I do to have a heart that is this veritable cesspool that has become a pressured artesian well of filth? What must we do? You know what the answer of the Bible is? You need only be conceived and born and nothing more. That's all. You need only be conceived in your mother's womb to have a heart like this. You remember David's words? When in the midst of the trauma and shame and spiritual agony of self-discovery, as a man in his later years, he was able to have a heart like this. He was able to have a heart like this. He was able to have a heart like this. He was able to ...

39:28 - 40:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that feelings of irritation and resentment towards parents are the seed of murder, and that lustful thoughts are the seed of adultery or rape.

Martin challenges teenagers who balk at parental rules, suggesting that their irritation and resentment are the 'seed of murder,' illustrating how seemingly small sins reveal the heart's capacity for greater evil if unrestrained.

Let me ask you teenagers, balking at mom and dad's rules and regulations, grousing under your breath, sometimes cursing them when you shut your bedroom door. Do you believe if God didn't restrain you, you could kill your mom and dad? That hatred is so real? Ha, you say never.

43:17 - 43:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Once God has given you a sight of your heart's nature, bow humbly before God, acknowledging yourself as capable of the worst sins, rather than strutting in self-righteousness.

Martin uses examples of young men making lewd remarks and men in the congregation looking at other women to illustrate how lustful thoughts, if unrestrained, would lead to rape or adultery, demonstrating the inherent sinfulness of the heart.

When you look at that young woman in your grades who's developing a little more than the other, and you snicker with the other guys and make remarks about her body, and make lewd remarks and have lewd looks, do you know what you'd do if you could in the right circumstance? You'd rape her! Oh, no, I guess you wouldn't! You who may sit right in the congregation, and I see at times when I'm trying to preach to your eyeballs, I see men whose eyes are on other women right in this congregation.

43:54 - 44:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire by biblical conviction a realistic assessment of the state of other men's hearts by nature, not according to modern psychology or liberal theology.

Martin uses the analogy of 'capping that artesian well' (of depravity) and 'damming up the river' (of sin) by common grace, parental standards, and societal norms to explain how God restrains sin, while still emphasizing the underlying depravity of the heart.

You must acquire by biblical conviction a realistic assessment of the state of other men's hearts by nature. You must not only acquire by spiritual illumination an accurate assessment of your own heart, but you must acquire by biblical conviction a realistic assessment of the state of other men's hearts by nature. You see, as long as these poor deluded Pharisees thought that pollution was only a matter of externals, they went on promoting their system of external religion. Because of their false assessment of their own hearts, they projected that to the hearts of others. And that's why Jesus s...

47:23 - 48:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire by biblical conviction a realistic assessment of the state of other men's hearts by nature, not according to modern psychology or liberal theology.

Martin references the 'recent summit' (likely the Geneva Summit of 1985) and the disappointment of those who hoped it would bring the millennium, using it as an anecdote to illustrate that human efforts for peace fail because they do not account for the depravity of the human heart.

by the standards of society, and by a host of other things, and thank God he does dam up the river, but whatever he may do to cap the well and dam up the river, the bottom line is this, how do you assess the state of the hearts of your fellow men? Biblically, or according to modern psychology, or liberal theology? Though we pleaded with God for God's blessing upon the recent summit, and though we cried to God that God would cause us to avoid the horrors and the ravages of warfare of any kind, nuclear or conventional, why do we have so little hope? Why are we not disciplined? Why are we disappo...

48:48 - 49:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Assess the state of your child's heart by the Bible, recognizing their innate depravity, and cry out to God to give them a new heart, using every means His word provides.

Martin challenges nursing mothers to look at their infants and weep, praying for a new heart for their child, illustrating the biblical assessment of a child's innate depravity and the need for regeneration from birth.

But I'm not so much concerned that we have a Biblical conviction concerning the state of other men's hearts out in the world, but I'm concerned about you parents. Do you assess the state of your child's heart by the Bible or by modern psychology? You nursing mothers, do you look down at times and weep as you see that little one taking nourishment from your breast and say inside that child is a heart that if left to itself allow that child someday to rise up and kill me, become a harlot, a lecher, a blasphemer, a railer, a prophet, a monument of the defilement of the human heart? Does that moth...

50:14 - 51:38 Read in full sermon