Before the Preaching of The Word

Driving home: We must consciously cultivate a fresh awareness that we will be dealing with the word of the living God himself.

Breathing is usually unconscious, but cultivating awareness of God's Word must be a conscious, deliberate act, unlike automatic bodily functions. This highlights the intentionality required for profitable hearing.

That is, this is something that must rise to the level of conscious activity. All of you have been breathing since you came into this building. You were breathing before or you wouldn't have come. But you have continued that activity.

7:13 - 7:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We must consciously cultivate a fresh awareness that we will be dealing with the word of the living God himself.

Turning to a hymn in a hymnal is a conscious act involving eye, hand, and brain. This illustrates that engaging with God's Word requires similar conscious, intentional activity, not passive reception.

having a spasm of asthma or a severe case of bronchitis or something else that is seriously impinging upon the normal activity of your breathing, your breathing has been an unconscious, albeit continuous, and very real activity. Well, you see, the thing we're dealing with is not something that is unconsciously done. It must be brought to the level of consciousness. When you were asked to turn to hymn number such-and-such, that was not an unconscious act. It involved some conscious activity integrating the eye and the hand and the brain, and you engaged in a conscious activity of turning to suc...

7:31 - 8:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To this man will I look, to the one who has on the one hand a present sense of his sinfulness, poor and contrite of spirit, and yet on the other hand, filled with such a conviction that Almighty God deigns to speak to si…

God's rhetorical question in Isaiah 66:1-2 about building a house for Him emphasizes His immensity and transcendence, setting up the contrast with the humble spirit He truly regards. This illustrates the reverence due to God.

Chapter 1, verse 2. Chapter 1, verse 2. be found anywhere in scripture. Isaiah chapter 66. Thus saith the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What manner of house will ye build unto me? And what place shall be my rest? For all these things hath my hand made, and all these things came to be, saith the Lord. In other words, God is saying, where can you build some structure that will be some monument to my presence and some assurance that I will be there? Since the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, what can you build on my earth that can contain me, that is w...

12:41 - 13:48 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not in the practice of seeking to cultivate this awareness (that you are coming to have dealings with God) before the ministry of the word, begin immediately to do so.

The story of young Samuel hearing God's voice and responding, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,' illustrates believing submission to God's Word, even when it leads to difficult tasks.

You'll remember most of you I'm sure, you'll remember the details. Old Eli at his post in the tabernacle at Shiloh. Young Samuel who's been dedicated to the Lord and Samuel hears the voice and he thinks it's his, probably he called him Uncle Eli if he was like us. He wasn't his real uncle, but there was an intimate relationship and he goes out and says and answers, Uncle Eli you called me and he says, no son I didn't call you, go back to bed.

17:11 - 17:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Drawing from 1 Peter 2:1-3, Martin argues that spiritual growth requires both wholesome food (the Word) and a healthy spiritual digestive system. Believers must 'put away'…

Physical growth requires both wholesome food and a healthy digestive system. This analogy is used to explain that spiritual growth requires the pure Word of God and a heart free from sin (a healthy spiritual 'gastrointestinal system').

Number one, wholesome food and a healthy digestive system. Now if any of us is to grow and to develop physically, we must have at least those two things. Wholesome food and a healthy digestive system. You see you may take a man with a medically perfect gastrointestinal system.

26:09 - 26:33 Read in full sermon

The point: It is yours to make sure the digestive system is prepared to receive it. Putting away therefore all of these things malice, deceit, pretense jealousy and slander.

If the wholesome Word enters a 'digestive system' full of sin, it will not be assimilated but will 'turn sour on your stomach and give you spiritual heartburn.' This vividly illustrates the negative consequences of unrepudiated sin.

Because the most wholesome unadulterated milk of the word coming to a digestive system full of this stuff will never be digested and assimilated into spiritual growth. If it goes down at all and stays down it'll just turn sour on your stomach and give you spiritual heartburn. And my friend that is your responsibility. Speaking to all who've experienced the divine begetting he says putting away law.

31:13 - 31:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Could not this be the answer to why some of you wrestle with some things that are plain to babes but they're so muddy to you you can't receive some doctrine of the word why? Because you have not put away all guile and ma…

The Pharisees' inability to see Jesus as the Messiah, despite clear evidence, is used as an example of how harboring sin (love of praise, hypocrisy) blinds one to plain truth. This reinforces the idea that sin hinders perception and reception of the Word.

You know why? Because because of some sin that you're harboring which if you were honest you know that sin would have to go before the weight of that truth that you can't see so you excuse your clinging to the sin by saying I can't see the truth which would drive it out. Wasn't that the problem with the Pharisees? We can't see that he's the Messiah.

35:36 - 36:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Believers must firmly believe that only God can enable them to understand His Word, even when taught by the best preachers. The example of Jesus opening His disciples'…

The disciples' understanding was not opened by Jesus attending a seminar on new teaching methods, but by Him opening their minds. This illustrates that spiritual understanding is a divine work, not merely a human pedagogical technique.

It wasn't that our Lord went away to a seminar on ten effective methods of making truth plain. And he began to implement a new teaching method. He got a new pedagogical wrinkle and began to insert it into his teaching. And then their eyes just popped left, right, and center.

41:12 - 41:29 Read in full sermon

The point: But, O Lord, O Lord, if You do not operate in my mind and spirit, while Pastor Fisher or Mr. Garlington or Mr. Leather, or Pastor Martin or Pastor Clark, whoever it be, Lord, if there's an activity that doesn't go beyond…

David's prayer, 'Open Thou mine eyes,' is interpreted as 'undress my eyes,' implying a veil or film over them. This metaphor illustrates the need for divine intervention to remove spiritual blindness and perceive the wonders of God's law.

and how frequent will the prayer of David become to us? Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. Literally, undress my eyes, Lord. The film is over my eyes.

44:31 - 44:48 Read in full sermon

The point: But, O Lord, O Lord, if You do not operate in my mind and spirit, while Pastor Fisher or Mr. Garlington or Mr. Leather, or Pastor Martin or Pastor Clark, whoever it be, Lord, if there's an activity that doesn't go beyond…

An anecdote from the Reformation where a reformer continually wrote 'More light' during a debate illustrates the constant, conscious dependence on God for illumination, even amidst intellectual engagement.

There is this veil over my eyes, Lord, undress my eyes. And you see, as you consciously acknowledge your need of the Spirit's ministry of enlightenment, and as it becomes almost a reflexive attitude, never to come to preaching, never to sit under preaching without praying, Lord, light, Lord, light, more light, Lord. Perhaps some of you have heard that incident that came to birth in the Reformation, when one of the Reformers was debating with one of his Romish opponents. And someone noticed that he was continually writing while the other man was speaking.

45:01 - 45:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Believers must firmly believe that only God can enable them to understand His Word, even when taught by the best preachers. The example of Jesus opening His disciples'…

Teachers can lay the tracks and set the engine of truth, but God must put 'steam into those tracks, those pistons, and drive it' for it to move. This illustrates that human teaching is insufficient without the Spirit's power to make the Word effective.

Actually have communion with Christ in the sense of the outgoing of your soul and your spirit to Him, saying, Lord, illuminate. As I concentrate and give myself to follow the track laid out in the teacher's mind as he opens up the Scripture, Lord, give light. They may lay the tracks, and they may set the engine of truth upon it, but, Lord, you've got to put steam into those tracks, those pistons, and drive it, or it'll never move. I'll sit here and receive nothing.

46:03 - 46:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Consciously acknowledge your need of the Spirit's ministry of illumination and enlightenment. Have you wondered why it is that almost every Lord's Day one of the hymns chosen before the preaching of the Word is a hymn ad…

Martin's willingness to walk twenty miles to hear Pastor Walter Chantry preach, followed by the admission of sometimes coming away 'dry as dust' even from a trusted preacher, illustrates the subtle danger of idolatrous confidence in human instruments rather than God.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, and I will have to say it more frequently, if the Lord gives us more years together. The more God knits your heart to trusted guides in the truth of Scripture, the more you are in danger, falling into an idolatrous confidence in those guides. For instance, I've told people that I'd walk any day of the week, twenty miles, to hear my good brother, Pastor Walter Chantry, preach. Now, he'd be embarrassed right through the floor if he were sitting here and heard me say that.

48:32 - 49:09 Read in full sermon

The point: It may mean you have to regulate your social activities for the benefit of your soul. We're back to self-denial.

The rigorous training of 14-year-old American swimmers, pushing themselves beyond the threshold of pain for a corruptible crown, is used to shame believers who are unwilling to put in similar effort for an incorruptible spiritual crown. This highlights the self-denial and diligence required for profitable hearing.

No gains without pains in nature or in grace. Don't you get ashamed when you pick up a paper and you read as some of us read I try to get a paper on Monday on my relaxing day and you read of how our American girls were determined to put the United States back number one in swimming and you read of these 14 year old girls training seven to nine hours a day. And they say most of those hours with burning lungs and aching limbs is they push themselves push themselves drive themselves to the point of pain and then beyond it. And their coaches say the difference between those that take gold medals a...

60:23 - 61:44 Read in full sermon