Biblical Words Used

The point: Take time to think hard and accurately about biblical words rather than chasing blessings ignorantly - or you deserve to be deceived.

Pastor Martin warns that pastors must so teach the Word that no slick teacher can pull a sleight-of-hand trick on a believer with an open Bible - building biblical literacy as defense against deception.

Now, the great concern of the apostle is that pastors and teachers should so function in the church so that no one can pull a sleight of hand trick on a child of God who has his Bible before him. And so it is in pursuit of that pastoral duty that I give myself this morning to trying to ascertain with you the meaning and significance of the basic things family of biblical words. Now, this discipline is very necessary. Although it is not glamorous, seldom is it exhilarating. And so it means that I've had to engage in some arduous acts of self-denial, both in my preparation and also be prepared f...

7:52 - 8:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The concept that holiness is something to do with set-apartness from common use unto God lies at the very root of these words.

He humorously notes that all the little bugs were probably still in the soil at the burning bush; the holiness of the ground was not chemical but designative - set apart for God's special encounter.

That all the little bugs that were there in that little piece of real estate where the bush was, and all that would render that earth in some sense unclean, that the fire that was in the bush actually purified the soil and made it holy soil?

14:52 - 15:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The concept that holiness is something to do with set-apartness from common use unto God lies at the very root of these words.

Esau was firstborn yet never knew sanctifying grace - proof that 'sanctified firstborn' in Exodus is not internal renewal but designative setting-apart.

He was the firstborn, but he obviously never knew any sanctifying grace. This is the clear teaching of the New Testament as well as the overpowering implication of the Old. But he's called a profane person in the New Testament, yet he was sanctified unto the Lord. He was the firstborn. And subsequent to this revelation that we have to Moses, it is evident that certain of the firstborn were not

17:57 - 18:26 Read in full sermon

Pastor Martin pictures a deep pool high on a mountain with streams flowing down each side - the same water, but different rocks give each stream different mineral character. So the basic word 'set apart' flows into three streams of biblical usage.

Try to picture high up on a mountain a natural and very deep pool. Some of us have seen that on certain mountains. Pools very, very high up in the mountain. Try to picture such a pool filled with clear, refreshing water. And then at certain points coming out of that pool where there are crevices in the rock, there are little rivulets and streams that flow down in different directions from that pool.

27:40 - 28:07 Read in full sermon

When Israel was carried captive, the heathen taunted: 'Our gods beat your god.' God says He will sanctify His name by gathering Israel back so the nations recognize Him as the only true God.

We've got our gods. You Israelites have your God. You call Him Jehovah. Our gods are mightier than your God because we beat you and we take you into captivity. That was the heathen mentality. And so God was not a part, alone.

31:41 - 31:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine whether you treat God with less courtesy than you treat your neighbors - the comparison should shame you to repentance.

Some treat God with less decency than they treat their neighbors. If you snubbed your friends the way you snub God in your sin, you'd lose every relationship.

And the shame of some of you in your sins is you treat God with less decency than you treat your fellow human beings. If you snubbed your neighbors and your friends and relatives the way you snubbed God, they would have long since turned their backs upon you. God is God deserves to have the place that is His by right of making Him. He is your Creator.

36:35 - 37:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject any reading of 1 Corinthians 7 that uses the sanctification of children to support presumptive infant baptism - it means covenant privilege, not regeneration.

Pastor Martin notes some hearers have parents who God alone can number the hours they wept for their salvation - those prayers are part of how God sanctifies the unbelieving spouse and household.

what it is to have had one person pray for one hour for their salvation. And some of you who have parents who God alone can number the hours they've wept and cried to God for your salvation. What a privilege to be sanctified, set apart from the common paganism of our day, and to be brought within the orbit of the gospel, But that sanctification won't take you to heaven. It will make you go to the hottest place in hell unless you repent. For to whom much is given, of him shall much be required. But then there is a sanctification of man that is not only man's responsibility and activity, and oh,...

47:03 - 47:59 Read in full sermon