Indispensable to the Life of the Church (2)

Driving home: Our blunder, or shall we frankly say our sin, has been, to neglect the doctrine of the Spirit to a point where we virtually deny Him His place in the Godhead.

Martin quotes Tozer's 'The Forgotten One' chapter, which critiques the neglect of the Holy Spirit in orthodox churches, highlighting the distinction between a formal creed and a working creed.

Well, I answer because of the stark reality that we may hold a theology which says amen to that which was established last Lord's Day morning. We may hold a theology in our minds which says an unreserved amen to the individualism, to the indispensability of the Spirit to constitute the very being, to be the very life, and the one who endows for ministry any given church. But you see, our theology is a matter of the head and of the study. And if it is to be theology as God intends it should be, it must also become the theology of the heart and of the sanctuary. Not merely what we believe in the...

7:38 - 8:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate a conscious, resolute repudiation of confidence in any other source of enablement for the church's life and ministry.

The analogy of religion as a 'crutch for weak-minded people' is used to illustrate man's arrogant self-trust and refusal to acknowledge dependence on God.

He feels that to take his place of dependantness is to dehumanize himself. That's why men in their arrogance call religion a crutch for weak-minded people. One of the horrible realities of sin is that the creature made a dependent creature and made to glory in his dependentness to acknowledge that he had his life and breath, his sanity, his ability to relate to his world and to all that is in it and to the God, who placed him in it. All of it was both given by God and upheld by God, and that was man's glory to take such a posture of dependantness. Sin has so twisted and warped man that he has ...

17:05 - 18:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departed from Jehovah.

The metaphor of a 'red blinking light at a dangerous intersection' is used to describe Jeremiah 17:5-6, warning against trusting in man instead of the Holy Spirit.

The moment there is misplacement, mistrust in the creature, there is apostasy from God. Now, not the thorough and the final apostasy which no true Christian can fall into, but a partial apostasy which can grieve the Holy Spirit and cause him to withdraw dimensions of his mighty presence and activity. This text ought to stand...

19:44 - 20:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate the spiritual disposition of expecting help only from God, making it second nature.

The analogy of a paraplegic instinctively reaching for crutches is used to illustrate how conscious, resolute repudiation of self-confidence and dependence on the Spirit should become second nature to believers.

in the language of Psalm 62 and verse 5, my expectation is only from Him? Oh Lord, my expectation is from You, only! and as the people of God, we need to cultivate this spiritual disposition until it becomes a second nature to us as reaching for ones crutches becomes second nature to the paraplegic who is going to get out of his chair and go from the living room into the kitchen it becomes second nature for him to reach for his crutches, because he has no nature for us. his strength in his own legs. No doubt in the beginning it was a discipline he had to learn, and for years he was able, when ...

31:53 - 33:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in specific, importunate prayer for increased measures of the Holy Spirit's presence and power upon all facets of the church's life and ministry.

A personal anecdote about sleeping arrangements in Pakistani homes is used to vividly illustrate the inconvenience the friend in Luke 11 would face, emphasizing the importunity of the one asking for bread.

And I will, I will say truth be told, they will manifest. What I'm trying to say is that, the moment God comes, the moment God comes and we don't want to be alone, we don't want to be alone and we don't want to be all alone. We have the possibility of being alone. We have the ability absolute repudiation of every other object of trust it will bring in its train specific importunate prayer for increased measures of his presence and power upon all facets of the life and ministry of the church and i am so thankful to god that one of the texts that people who come among us and are with us probably...

36:16 - 37:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the crucial importance of corporate prayer seasons (e.g., Wednesday prayer meetings) and personal prayer on Lord's Day mornings to plead for the Spirit's presence.

The analogy of a benefactor offering daily gifts to people in a hovel, but only if they ask, illustrates why God requires us to ask for the Holy Spirit and other blessings, connecting asking with communion and dependence.

That the Spirit will take of the things of Christ and make them real. That when we seek to express the language of praise, the heart will rise with our words, and expand with the wonder of God's grace and His goodness to us. And when our brethren who lead us, lead us in prayer, the Spirit brings us, as it were, as a great company of new covenant priests, on the wings of His own power, into a more intensified, felt awareness of God's nearness in prayer. Do you see how crucial it is that by the grace of God, we be a people marked as those who, specifically, importunately pray for the Holy Spirit...

44:33 - 45:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes Spurgeon on the lamentable results of grieving the Spirit, including loss of power in prayer, inability to understand Scripture, lack of spiritual exhilaration…

Martin quotes Spurgeon's sermon on Ephesians 4:30, detailing the lamentable results of grieving the Spirit, such as loss of power, barrenness in ministry, and spiritual darkness.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Do not grieve Him in our corporate life. Do not grieve Him by failure to esteem His person, His presence, and His power as indispensable to the being, life, and ministry of this church. And if we are to keep that injunction, let us seek to cultivate a disposition of repudiation, of all confidence in the arm of flesh, a pattern of importunate prayer for the Spirit to be given, and then the discipline of consistent praise when He has been graciously granted to us. I was interested in reading a sermon of Scripture, which was preached by one of the surgeons when ...

56:40 - 57:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin quotes Spurgeon on the lamentable results of grieving the Spirit, including loss of power in prayer, inability to understand Scripture, lack of spiritual exhilaration…

The story of Samson is referenced as a sad example of losing power and usefulness when the Spirit departs, causing Martin to weep in his reading chair.

When you go to the house of God, there shall be none of that devout exhilaration, that running without weariness, that walking without fainting. You'll feel yourself like Samson when his hair was lost, weak, captive, and blinded. In my Old Testament devotional reading this week, I read afresh the story of Samson, and I confess without shame when I was done, I sat in my reading chair and wept. It's one of the saddest stories in the Bible.

58:14 - 58:47 Read in full sermon