Proper Approach to the Study

The point: Do not put the preacher under the judgment of your own ability to assess where he fits, but rather put yourself under the judgment of the Word.

A man categorizes Martin as 'halfway between a Pentecostal and a Plymouth Brethren' after a sermon, illustrating the improper attitude of judging the preacher based on preconceived notions rather than the Word.

And yet we must, if we're honest, confess that we often come to the Scriptures with that attitude and to preaching with that attitude. Then the third attitude is the one in which you do not put yourself under the judgment of the Word, but you put the preacher or teacher under the judgment, of your own ability to assess where he fits. I remember one time preaching in a church, expounding the seventh chapter of Mark, in which our Lord castigates the Pharisees and scribes for negating Scripture by church tradition. You remember he said, In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrines the comman...

5:48 - 6:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Approach any biblical subject as humble disciples, bowing before the authority of the Word, asking God by the Spirit to give light.

Paul's prayer for illumination in Ephesians 1 is used to illustrate that even with inspired teaching, people remain 'blind as a bat' to truth without the Spirit's work, emphasizing conscious dependence.

And so I submit to you that when we approach any biblical subject, we must never approach it as though we stand over it as masters to analyze and to dissect. But we come as little children, as humble disciples, bowing before the authority of the Word, asking God by the Spirit to give us light. Perhaps the most telling test as to whether or not we have cultivated this conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit is the frequency and fervency with which we pray with David,

10:28 - 11:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate an attitude of heart weaned from self-confidence, creature confidence, and preacher confidence, placing your confidence in God the Spirit alone to open up the Scriptures.

The example of those who approach Scripture confidently as 'doctors' who can 'handle the book' without conscious dependence on the Spirit, leading to spiritual blindness.

They came not with a sense of conscious dependence upon the Spirit, who alone can open up the truth of scripture. They came confident, we're the doctors, we can handle the book.

12:02 - 12:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate an attitude of heart weaned from self-confidence, creature confidence, and preacher confidence, placing your confidence in God the Spirit alone to open up the Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit withdrawing His influence if insulted by a lack of conscious dependence, saying, 'All right, you smart enough to get on without me? All right, I'll let you see what you can do.'

And is your confidence in God the Spirit alone to open up the scriptures? You see, if we insult and grieve the Holy Spirit by failing to consciously acknowledge our need of Him, He'll display His grief and displeasure by withdrawing and withholding His gracious and powerful influence. As the Spirit of illumination, He says, all right, you smart enough to get on without me? All right, I'll let you see what you can do.

12:27 - 12:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate an attitude of heart weaned from self-confidence, creature confidence, and preacher confidence, placing your confidence in God the Spirit alone to open up the Scriptures.

Quoting Jeremiah 17:5, the person who trusts in man is likened to a 'heath in the desert' that 'shall not see when good cometh,' illustrating the barrenness of self-reliance.

Jeremiah 17, 5, Cursed be he that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. He shall be like a heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit a parched place, a wilderness, a salt land, where no water is. Dear ones, the word of the psalmist is true as much today as it was when he spoke it. And in thy light we shall see light.

12:56 - 13:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Maintain a teachable spirit, even though true spiritual learning is a painful and costly process.

The ease of 'pulling down the shades' in front of our minds and stumbling in ignorance, illustrating the resistance to the painful process of true learning.

Since true learning is a painful process. It's easy to pull down the shades that are hung up there in front of our minds and conveniently stumble around in our present level of ignorance. True learning is a painful process. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I doubt you've had true spiritual learning.

13:46 - 14:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Avoid spiritual impetuosity and gullibility; do not quickly swallow every new thing without individual investigation and discernment.

Meeting people who 'swallowed hook, line, and sinker' every new thing, only to regret it later, leaving a 'trail of blood' of harmed people, illustrating the danger of lacking individual investigation and discernment.

Since such great issues are involved for us individually, and since none of us lives to himself, but we have an influence upon our children, our friends, our loved ones, our fellow Christians, we cannot afford the luxury of spiritual impetuosity and gullibility. I've met so many dear people that thought they could afford the luxury of what I call spiritual impetuosity and gullibility. Every new thing they swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, and they'd take off like a rocket in that direction, only three years later to say what a fool I was. But the trouble is, they've left a trail of blood of...

18:26 - 19:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine the Scriptures daily with the objectivity of a legal process, laying out all the facts.

The word 'examine' in Acts 17:11 is compared to a criminal being examined in court, emphasizing the objectivity and thoroughness required in scriptural investigation.

And that word examine is the same word used in a legal sense. When a criminal is brought before a court and is examined for his crime, that's the sense in which it's used in Acts 4.9 and in Acts 12.19.

20:42 - 20:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Once truth is discovered in Scripture, yield yourselves up to the authority of divine truth.

The contrast between those who 'take off like a rocket' after a brief study and the Bereans who 'searched the Scriptures daily,' illustrating the need for persistence over impetuosity.

This individual discernment and investigativeness is to be carried out within the framework of a fixed, standard of truth, the Scriptures. Secondly, it's to be done with persistence. Notice, they searched the Scriptures or examined the Scriptures daily, day by day. They didn't go off for three hours and say, well, I've prayed and I've looked up the verses and now I'm all ready to take off like a rocket.

21:38 - 22:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes John Brown on the power of prejudice, illustrating how deeply entrenched false notions can prevent even the plainest truth from being received, using the disciples'…

An extended quotation from John Brown's commentary on the 'power of prejudice over men's minds,' explaining how deeply held opinions resist even clear truth, especially when passions are involved.

Once it was discovered to be truth, the issue was settled. They must yield themselves up to the authority of divine truth. This is a most difficult thing for us. John Brown in his excellent commentary on John 14 through 16 that is found in volume three of his Discourses and Sayings of Our Lord, a volume that I worked through recently for my own devotional exercises, has the most perceptive words about this very thing of a proper attitude with respect to the work of the Holy Spirit.

22:38 - 23:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes John Brown on the power of prejudice, illustrating how deeply entrenched false notions can prevent even the plainest truth from being received, using the disciples'…

The disciples' inability to understand Jesus's prophecy of His death due to their entrenched prejudice of a temporal Messiah, illustrating how false notions blind people to plain truth.

When an opinion or feeling, however originating, has obtained a place in the mind and kept it for a long series of years, it is no easy matter to unsettle and dislodge it. We are very unwilling to be convinced that what we have long counted true is false, especially in cases where, in consequence, of our interest and passions being involved, a conviction of the falsity of an opinion long held is connected with the relinquishing of expectations long and fondly cherished. You see, he's relating this to the disciples who had thought for years that Messiah will come

23:26 - 24:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray constantly for God to dislodge blinding prejudice from your mind that keeps you from seeing what is truly true.

False notions are likened to an 'octopus which sent out its tentacles into all the fibers and facets of the mind and held it in its grip,' illustrating the pervasive power of prejudice.

Because they were obscure? No. But because their minds had entrenched in them false notions and the plainest truth could not dislodge the false notions. The false notions.

24:40 - 24:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Pastors and teachers should shake their boots before preaching, recognizing that their willful blind prejudice can become the prejudice of their people.

The spiritual leader's willful blind prejudice becoming the prejudice of his people, illustrating the heavy judgment on teachers and the danger of leading others astray.

sets the direction of the thinking of so many. What a frightening thing. No wonder James says, Be not many of you teachers, knowing that ye shall receive the heavier judgment. Some of you men that may have a starry-eyed concept of the ministry, I hope you're shaking your boots before you ever stand to preach, because the areas of your willful blind prejudice are in great measure the willful blind prejudice of your people.

26:34 - 27:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One of the ways they rest them is they have no basic, biblically dictated principles of interpretation. They can make the Bible, they make it a nose of wax. Shape it any way they want.

The word 'rest' in 2 Peter 3:16 is explained as putting Scripture on a 'rack and stretch out a shape,' illustrating the manipulation and distortion of God's Word.

He says they take those words of Paul, which he equates with Scripture, and he says they rest them. And that word rest means to put on a rack and stretch out a shape. They take those Scriptures, they hold to the substance of the Word of God, but he says they stretch it, stretch it out of its natural shape and intent. And when they do, what do they end up doing?

29:19 - 29:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One of the ways they rest them is they have no basic, biblically dictated principles of interpretation. They can make the Bible, they make it a nose of wax. Shape it any way they want.

Making the Bible a 'nose of wax' that can be shaped any way one wants, illustrating the danger of lacking biblical principles of interpretation.

One of the ways they rest them is they have no basic, biblically dictated principles of interpretation. They can make the Bible, they make it a nose of wax. Shape it any way they want. Paul was conscious that people were doing this in his day.

30:16 - 30:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses the events in Acts 10 (Spirit falling on Gentiles) and Acts 11 (Peter's explanation and the Jerusalem church's interpretation) to demonstrate how inspired…

Peter's realization after the Spirit fell on Cornelius's household, 'I think I'm getting the message,' illustrating how God uses historical events to teach His servants.

Peter's preaching, the Holy Ghost falls, Peter says, I think I'm getting the message. I think I'm getting the message. Up till now, I wouldn't give these people Christian baptism to receive them on an equal footing with us Jews. Never!

38:55 - 39:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the teaching portions of Scripture govern your interpretation of the historical portions, and not the other way around.

A personal anecdote of being told he needed 'coaching' to speak in tongues, contrasting it with Cornelius's experience where the Spirit fell spontaneously, illustrating a misinterpretation of historical portions.

Yet I remember as a babe in Christ, open and hungry for anything God would give me, having some well-meaning brother sit me down and take me through Acts 2 and Acts 10 and Acts 19 and try to prove to me that what happened there has as its primary significance that as they spoke in tongues, I should speak in tongues. That was a resting of the Scriptures. It was a resting of the Scriptures. It was a resting of the Scriptures.

44:54 - 45:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin extends the principle to the Gospels (historical facts of Christ's life) and the Epistles (inspired interpretation), arguing that prophecy and didactic teaching illuminate…

Listing the historical facts of Christ's birth in a 'stinking cow barn' and life in a 'town of checkered reputation,' illustrating that historical facts need interpretation to reveal their full meaning.

But for the most part, the Gospels are a narrative of the life, ministry, and death of the Lord Jesus. They give us the facts. Conceived in a virgin's womb. Born in a stinking cow barn.

49:20 - 49:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin extends the principle to the Gospels (historical facts of Christ's life) and the Epistles (inspired interpretation), arguing that prophecy and didactic teaching illuminate…

Comparing the unusual phenomena surrounding Christ's birth (stars, shepherds) to the unusual phenomena of the Spirit's coming, emphasizing that we worship Christ, not the phenomena.

This is what He's come to do. This is His essential work. And then when He comes, just like with our Lord's coming, there is a lot of unusual phenomena. God says, See through the phenomena.

52:15 - 52:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to have all the legitimate fire of the Spirit without the destructive effects of wildfire, by both trying the spirits and not quenching the Spirit.

The analogy that 'a person who never lights a match never runs the danger of setting a house on fire,' illustrating the overreaction of those who choose 'no fire' to avoid 'wildfire.'

and we want it at any cost. Yes, any cost, even the cost of truth. And so there's wildfire and then people see that and get scared to death and say, well, the only way we're sure we'll never get wildfire is to have no fire. A person who never lights a match never runs the danger of setting a house on fire.

57:40 - 58:03 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are confused and cannot grasp spiritual truths, flee to God in Christ's name and ask Him to have mercy and open your spiritually blinded eyes.

Describing the sermon's content as 'the language of Canaan,' which unbelievers cannot understand, illustrating the spiritual blindness of the natural man.

But in a group this size I would be relatively sure there are some of you strangers to God's grace and you say, what in the world has that preacher been talking about tonight? Well, my friend, I'm not embarrassed to say that if you couldn't understand me, I'm almost glad. Because I've been talking the language of Canaan to you. And unless you're a citizen of Canaan, you can't understand that kind of speech.

60:08 - 60:32 Read in full sermon