Christ as Prophet - Individual Implications

Explaining to the children the loom's warp (lengthwise) and woof (crosswise) threads — application has been only the border of the fabric, but today and next week it is the warp and woof.

and the unmeasured degree of his power, all of which combine to make him that uniquely fitted one to be God's final prophet. Now today and next Lord's Day morning, we shall consider the practical demands and implications of the prophetic office of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the previous studies concerning the prophetic office of Christ, application has been sort of like the border on the fabric. But this morning and next Lord's Day morning, application will form the very warp and woof of our study together. Now, do you know what the warp and the woof is, kids? We don't live in a day when we hav...

3:56 - 4:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Hear Christ not as a brute beast merely receiving vibrations, nor as a rational creature merely giving meaning — hear as a disciple who embraces and obeys His word.

Standing in a zoo reading Christ's words — the bear and antelope would hear the sound but not the sense. The hearing of brute beasts, rational creatures, and disciples are three different things.

And God says, Hear ye him. Hear this prophet, who alone can rightly interpret the other prophets. Hear this prophet, who is the focal point of all the message of the previous prophets, as we read in Acts 3 and verse 24. Hear him, the Father says. What does it mean to hear him? The best thing I ever found opening up very simply what it means to hear him is, I found several weeks ago in reading Manton's comments on this passage, he said there are three kinds of hearing. There is the hearing common to any creature of God that has the faculty of hearing. If you were to go out in the midst of a zoo...

10:38 - 11:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The ugliest sight I've ever seen is my own heart.

A child opens his present, dances a jig, then notices what the sibling or neighbor got, and his face lengthens like Joshua's long day — a vivid illustration of covetings proceeding from the heart.

every form of marital infidelity, covetings. Oh, listen, children, covetings. No sooner does your brother or sister open his or her Christmas present to what you're dissatisfied with yours. And you can't even go back to your room on Christmas Eve. Happy! Why? You're coveting that your brother or your sister got. Where'd that come from, kids? Right out of your own home.

15:46 - 16:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not keep testing the spiritual ice — the moment any sinner throws the weight of his soul upon Christ by weak or strong faith, he has life.

A man from across a frozen lake gingerly tests ice strength with his foot, making his way cautiously — then his friend barrels across on a horse-drawn sled. Both men are equally safe, but the confident one is far more happy. Pictures assurance as distinct from safety.

The former makes you safe, the latter makes you blessed. Now I'm sure many of you have heard the illustration told in one fashion or another, and at wintertime it's a good illustration to use, of the man whose home was on one side of a lake. And the store where he did his shopping in this rural area, a general store, was on the other side of the lake. And during the summertime, of course, he had to circumvent the perimeter of the lake. He had to go around. But in the wintertime, when the lake was frozen solid enough...

31:35 - 32:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to the word of God unafraid of what you might turn up — say, 'Lord Jesus, speak, and all you say by your grace I will believe and obey.'

Pastor Martin's own throat infection treated with $1.20 purple pills he did not analyze but simply swallowed on the credit of his physician — pictures how disciples receive Christ's hard sayings without dissection.

on the credit of the physician when it appears on other grounds that Christ is the great teacher sent from God. When this throat of mine got to the place where everything was swollen, and I won't describe this condition of the infection, it's not pleasant, and the doctor prescribed these purple bombs at $1.20 a shot, I didn't analyze them, I didn't scrutinize them, I just popped them when I was supposed to.

45:11 - 45:37 Read in full sermon