During the Preaching of The Word

Driving home: For as surely as... Poor preaching begets poor listening, true preaching must of necessity beget true listening.

Describes the tragedy of poor preaching where congregants are like 'hungry sheep look up. And are not fed,' highlighting the spiritual famine in many churches.

This text has formed the basis and the framework of this brief series of studies because, in the first chapter of Luke's Gospel, in this text there is established the fact that every Christian has a solemn and constant duty carefully to regard the manner in which he hears the word of God. One of the greatest tragedies of our day is the tragedy of what we might call the paucity of true preaching.

0:54 - 1:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And generally speaking, the more spiritual any exercise is, the more violent will be the opposition of remaining corruption.

Illustrates the violent opposition of remaining corruption by contrasting the ease of reading a newspaper with the mental distractions encountered when reading the Bible.

The more spiritual the exercise is, the more violent will be the reaction of remaining corruption. Did you ever feel violent actings of your own remaining sin when you sat down to read the newspaper? Did you find an indisposition and a distraction of mind creeping over you? Well, no.

11:17 - 11:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And generally speaking, the more spiritual any exercise is, the more violent will be the opposition of remaining corruption.

Metaphorically suggests that there's no magical way to shed remaining sin when entering a place of worship, emphasizing that sin remains active during preaching.

Now, if God is ordained the preaching of the Word as the major instrument in the complex of His sanctifying work, where will there be more violent reaction of remaining sin but under the preaching of the Word of God? It would be a wonderful thing if there was some kind of an exotic gas or some kind of an unusual talisman that we could make you breathe the gas or wave that talisman over you that when you entered the doors of a place set apart for preaching, you could shed, at least for those moments, the actings of remaining corruption. But you sit there with that remaining sin not only present...

12:10 - 12:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first directive for hearing during preaching is to engage the mind with resolute determination, drawing from the command to love God with all one's mind (Matthew 22) and…

Explains 'resolute' to children by describing a determined child on a playground who vows to 'get you after school,' illustrating fixed purpose and determination.

Resolute is what happens out in the playground at school when somebody didn't like what you did and they stick their jaw out and they say, I'm going to get you after school. And they stick their little jaw out and the fire's in their eyes. What's happened? They have become resolute.

13:55 - 14:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate and guard mental vigor throughout the week, not just on the Lord's Day, by being mindful of leisure activities like TV watching or sports.

Compares a physically unfit man unable to run half a mile in an emergency to a mentally lax person unable to engage vigorously with demanding preaching, highlighting the need for mental vigor.

You see how vital is the cultivation and guarding of mental vigor. Let me illustrate. Here's a man that sits around spending all his free time with his feet up in his lazy boy recliner, watching TV and munching on Fritos. He's terribly out of shape, his arteries are all clogged up with extra cholesterol and his whole cardiovascular system.

29:59 - 30:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We cannot be indifferent to general mental vigor Monday to Saturday and marshal the strength to profit from true preaching on the Lord's Day.

Martin shares his personal experience of being a 'sports addict' before conversion and his decision to remove television from his home due to personal weakness, illustrating the need to guard mental vigor.

And I know there is such a thing. Until God saved me, I was one. It's one of the reasons why we no longer have a television. Because I think I'm too weak.

32:26 - 32:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We cannot be indifferent to general mental vigor Monday to Saturday and marshal the strength to profit from true preaching on the Lord's Day.

Compares short, undemanding sermons to 'forty-yard sprints' and expository sermons to 'mile runs,' emphasizing the sustained mental effort required for the latter.

Some of you are sports addicts. You think you can spend three and four hours on a Saturday just watching big brutes butt one another's heads and come on the Lord's day with a mind that is ready to give itself to the arduous task of really listening to the Word of God? Well, if we preach little ten-minute bitties here, you might be. You might be able to take a little forty-yard sprint. But we have sermons that are mile runs. We try to follow the track of the mind of the Spirit as we preach through large sections of the Word of God and vast themes of Scripture. And it demands that there is some ...

32:42 - 33:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We cannot be indifferent to general mental vigor Monday to Saturday and marshal the strength to profit from true preaching on the Lord's Day.

Recounts a conversation with a preacher's wife who was exhausted after a sermon, which Martin affirms as a sign of true, engaged listening, demonstrating that deep listening is hard work.

Some of you are sports addicts. You think you can spend three and four hours on a Saturday just watching big brutes butt one another's heads and come on the Lord's day with a mind that is ready to give itself to the arduous task of really listening to the Word of God? Well, if we preach little ten-minute bitties here, you might be. You might be able to take a little forty-yard sprint. But we have sermons that are mile runs. We try to follow the track of the mind of the Spirit as we preach through large sections of the Word of God and vast themes of Scripture. And it demands that there is some ...

32:42 - 33:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One has aptly said the heart is the chief guest at every ordinance.

Uses the biblical description of being 'pricked in their heart' to illustrate the powerful, convicting impact of the Word, like being 'stabbed as with a dagger.'

Some say they are drunk, and Peter stands to explain what has happened. And in the midst of his explanation, which focuses on the mighty saving acts of God in Jesus Christ, we read this, verse 37, Now when they heard, and obviously not hearing with the outer ear only, but heard with an insight granted by the Spirit, they were pricked in their heart, literally stabbed as with a dagger. Now what happened? They felt the power of that terrible indictment.

41:51 - 42:32 Read in full sermon

The point: When confronted with lofty truths that are hard to grasp, bow and say, 'Oh God, what I cannot understand and fathom, I can believe, remembering you are God and I am the creature.'

Describes the mind's attempt to grasp lofty, incomprehensible truths as 'clawing a sheer wall of granite,' illustrating the appropriate response of humble belief when understanding fails.

And there is right now a sense of contrition that you've robbed yourself and dishonored God because you've indulged in sloppy patterns of mental discipline or innocent daydreaming. And there's been the response, you see, that is commensurate with conviction. Other times the response is commensurate with truths so lofty that when the mind tries, as it were, to take hold of them, it's like clawing a sheer wall of granite it can't grasp. And at that point it was simply, bow and say, Oh God, what I cannot understand and fathom, I can believe, remembering you are God and I am the creature.

49:00 - 49:42 Read in full sermon

The point: When confronted with lofty truths that are hard to grasp, bow and say, 'Oh God, what I cannot understand and fathom, I can believe, remembering you are God and I am the creature.'

Quotes an old Puritan who states that 'man's great work in spiritual approaches is to give the whole man to God,' using the analogy of a watch with a missing wheel to emphasize the need for all faculties in holy duties.

Speaking to this very issue, he said, God's great work was to make the whole world for man, and man's great work in spiritual approaches is to give the whole man to God. If there be one wheel missing in a wheel, watch, it cannot go at all to be an index of time. So in holy duties, those who serve God must give him their hottest love, their highest joy, their strongest faith, their greatest fear. They must act every grace, extend every faculty, improve every part.

50:19 - 50:59 Read in full sermon