After the Preaching of The Word

Driving home: I will seek to articulate principles which aim at deriving a maximum profit from the word of God. And should not that be our aim?

Martin uses the analogy of investing a thousand dollars for maximum returns to argue that believers should seek maximum profit from the Word of God, which is far more valuable than perishing silver and gold.

Should we be satisfied with anything less than maximum returns from the input of the word of God? If you have a thousand dollars to invest, you try to find that sphere of investment which will bring maximum returns. If you have a thousand dollars to invest, you try to find that sphere of investment which will bring maximum returns. If you have a thousand dollars to invest, you try to find that sphere of investment which will bring maximum returns.

6:18 - 6:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I am not suggesting that by implementing any or all of these principles that blessing from preaching will be infallibly assured. You see, this is not a little how-to business where you put something in the slot and out c…

Martin uses the analogy of a 'how-to business' where you put something in a slot and get a promised goodie to explain that spiritual blessing is not automatic or mechanical, but subject to God's sovereignty.

I am not suggesting that by implementing any or all of these principles that blessing from preaching will be infallibly assured. You see, this is not a little how-to business where you put something in the slot and out comes the promised goodie. As in every realm, God never relinquishes his sovereignty. One sows, another waters, but God gives the increase.

7:18 - 7:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I am not suggesting that by implementing any or all of these principles that blessing from preaching will be infallibly assured. You see, this is not a little how-to business where you put something in the slot and out c…

Martin uses Jesus' analogy of the wind blowing where it wills to describe the mysterious and sovereign nature of the Holy Spirit's work in blessing the proclamation of the Word.

1 Corinthians 3. Our Lord said, The ways of the Spirit are like the wind. The wind blows where it wills. You cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

7:46 - 7:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I am not suggesting that by implementing any or all of these principles that blessing from preaching will be infallibly assured. You see, this is not a little how-to business where you put something in the slot and out c…

Martin contrasts a diligent hearer who leaves dry with a distracted hearer who is ravished by God's power, illustrating that God's blessing is sovereign and not earned by human effort.

He has sat under the preaching with a mind riveted upon the truth, with a heart that has sought to respond to that truth. He seeks to implement the directives given tonight, and he has left, a relatively dry and barren, that God may remind him that he has no claims over him, and he is thrown again upon the sovereign mercy of Almighty God. Conversely, there is that person who comes to the assembly with his mind all cluttered up with all kinds of rubbish from an over-busy life and too much TV watching and all the rest, and he sits under the Word, and God comes with power and gives him such a rav...

8:22 - 9:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first duty is repetition, to rivet the content of the preached Word to the mind. Martin cites Proverbs and Deuteronomy to show the biblical emphasis on acquiring and retaining…

Martin uses the metaphor of receiving a gift and then laying it up in a safe to illustrate the difference between merely hearing God's Word and actively retaining it as a treasure.

You see how the image goes from receiving a gift to laying it up as a treasure. It's one thing to have the commodity in one's hands. It's another thing to have it in one's safe. So he says, whatever I deposit in your hands as a treasure, put it in the safe.

11:55 - 12:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first duty is repetition, to rivet the content of the preached Word to the mind. Martin cites Proverbs and Deuteronomy to show the biblical emphasis on acquiring and retaining…

Martin uses the analogy of dating a woman versus marrying her to explain that it's not enough to merely 'lay hold' of truth; one must 'retain' it, making a permanent commitment.

You know it's one thing for a man to have a date with a woman. It's another thing to put a ring on her finger at a marriage altar. So he's saying with this beautiful woman truth. Don't merely court her and date her but marry her.

12:52 - 13:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Begin to repeat the main substance of Sunday school lessons or sermons with your children in the car or at the dinner table to drive home the points.

Martin compares the Psalmist's high estimation of God's truth to a man treasuring rare gold coins, arguing that if we truly value God's Word, we won't carelessly lose it but will make every effort to rivet it to our minds.

Because he counts the acquiring of one truth from the word of God as of greater worth than thousands of gold and silver. Now when you put that kind of premium upon truth can you imagine a man who has acquired at great cost rare gold coins worth thousands upon thousands of dollars. He doesn't leave those gold coins lying around in his dresser like loose pennies, nickels and dimes. He doesn't stick them in his pocket just for giving vent to his nervous habit of jangling his change.

16:23 - 17:02 Read in full sermon

The point: For those alternating in services, share what you heard with your spouse to rivet it more firmly to your own mind.

Martin recounts a story of a young man who initially grew 'sick' of hearing a sermon repeated but later confessed its powerful, lasting influence, demonstrating the effectiveness of repetition.

the concepts of the word of God the texts that were discussed and you go back and you will find in sharing it with your spouse it's riveted more firmly to your own mind. An interesting thing happened the other day one of the young men in our assembly was telling me something I don't know what the connection was but he said you know pastor I had occasion to spend a good bit of time with one of the men in his car and he has a tape deck and he said he kept playing the same sermon over and over and over again until frankly this young man said to me he said I was getting kind of sick of hearing the...

19:53 - 20:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now some have the notion that if God promises it therefore I need not pray for it no no you misunderstand the intention of a promise of God if you think it is a blank check not to pray or not a blank check but an excuse …

Martin uses the physical elements of the communion service, specifically holding the cup, as a tangible reminder of Christ's blood and God's covenant commitment to write His law on the heart, strengthening prayer.

sealed in the blood of his son and you see this is where the physical elements of the communion service are such a blessing when I'm praying I can say Lord as surely as I held a cup that held common ordinary fruit of the vine surely as I held that the blood of your son was spilt he himself said this is the blood of the covenant oh Lord as surely as that blood was spilt for sinners such as I am surely Lord you are committed to write your law upon my heart I need not have this constant problem of being moved under preaching and then at the point where I need

26:24 - 27:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third duty is meditation, absorbing the Word into all of life. Martin establishes this duty from Psalm 1 and Psalm 119, defining meditation as concentrated consideration and…

Martin presents the communion service as a 'graciously imposed exercise in meditation,' where believers concentrate on Christ's dying love, apply it to their circumstances, and trace its relationships to other truths like God's electing love and Christ's return.

And then thirdly, meditation will also almost invariably involve viewing that truth in its various relationships to other truths. This is one of the beauties of meditation. God's truth is so invariably involved and intertwined that when you look long enough and hard enough at one part, it will lead you to its sister and brother and kindred and cousin and second cousin, twice removed, twos, and you begin to see the beautiful symmetry of the word of God in the context of meditation. You see, in a very real sense, the communion service is a wonderfully, graciously imposed exercise in meditation.

38:04 - 38:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third duty is meditation, absorbing the Word into all of life. Martin establishes this duty from Psalm 1 and Psalm 119, defining meditation as concentrated consideration and…

Martin humorously anticipates an objection from his audience about the difficulty of meditation in the busy metropolitan area, using it to emphasize that meditation is a universal, timeless duty regardless of circumstances.

You say, Pastor Martin, you really are living in a fool's paradise. You'd better get down out of your study and away from all your old Puritan friends. Don't you know you're talking to people who live in the New York, New Jersey metropolitan area? Who've got to drive through this wretched traffic on Route 80, Route 46, Route 22, Route 287.

42:53 - 43:11 Read in full sermon

The point: In activities that don't require total mental engagement (e.g., changing diapers, washing dishes), turn over thoughts from God's Word and suck sweetness from them.

Martin refutes the idea that meditating day and night means being detached from responsibilities, using the analogy of a rich uncle and a monk to clarify that meditation is integrated into daily life, not an escape from it.

Now, does that mean that he has a rich uncle who pays his bills? Who takes care of all the economic necessities and he, like a monk, having his house for his cloistered place instead of a monastery, just sits in the corner like little Jack Horner and looks at his Bible and meditates? No. Obviously not.

43:43 - 44:07 Read in full sermon

The point: In activities that don't require total mental engagement (e.g., changing diapers, washing dishes), turn over thoughts from God's Word and suck sweetness from them.

Martin uses King David as an example of a man who meditated day and night despite being a warrior and king with immense responsibilities, demonstrating that meditation is compatible with an active life.

The man who wrote this often spent hours out on a battlefield with a sword cutting off people's heads and putting them to death. Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands. He had to administer the entire theocracy. He was a king, a man with all the demands of a place of leadership.

44:07 - 44:28 Read in full sermon

The point: In activities that don't require total mental engagement (e.g., changing diapers, washing dishes), turn over thoughts from God's Word and suck sweetness from them.

Martin shares a personal story from his early conversion about feeling guilty for not consciously thinking of God's Word while working a cement mixer, illustrating how he learned a balanced understanding of meditation in demanding tasks.

I can remember again how I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I read Psalm 1 and I didn't have anyone to interpret it to me in a balanced way. And I thought it meant just what it said. But it seems to say day and night, every waking moment in the day and in the night, you would consciously be thinking of the Word of God.

45:39 - 45:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: True spiritual growth does not come in terms of the mere input of Biblical knowledge into the ears or even in terms of its being riveted to the mind. It is when it is implemented, when it is worked out in use, making pra…

Martin uses James's metaphor of a man looking in a mirror and forgetting his appearance to illustrate the futility of merely hearing the Word without implementing it, leading to self-delusion.

And then, of course, you've already anticipated, I'm sure, many of you, the New Testament passage, James chapter 1. James chapter 1, verse 22. Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. For if any man is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror.

51:52 - 52:23 Read in full sermon