Honoring Christ in Male/Female Roles (3)

The point: Send for the newly printed catalog of tapes from the Trinity Pulpit ministry.

Martin shares how he provides the address for the Trinity Pulpit ministry and clarifies that it's a subsidized, non-profit endeavor, ensuring the gospel is not merchandised.

Now, before I read the word of God in your hearing and then together seek the face of God in prayer, I just want to say several have asked me for the address of the Trinity pulpit, so I've just taken one of my own little business cards that has the general box number, and I've circled it, just put Trinity pulpit, and there's the box number, and that will go to the manager of that ministry. And I do want to say, as a disclaimer, this is a subsidized ministry of the Church. I do not receive any royalties. The Church receives no profits.

0:01 - 0:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin sets the historical context, explaining that the early church, like today, faced widespread sexual impurity rooted in paganism, necessitating explicit apostolic instruction…

Martin uses the decree from the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) as a classic example of the apostles needing to explicitly address sexual impurity among new Gentile converts, highlighting the pervasive nature of the problem.

Wherever paganism and idol worship, their horrible moral degeneration will inevitably be present. And one of the dominant manifestations of that moral degeneration was the tragic and widespread dominance of sexual impurity. It was therefore necessary for the apostles in the nurturing of the gospel and in the nurturing of the early churches to address head-on and frequently the subject of sexual purity. They did not assume that the mere coming of the gospel with power would automatically sort out the sexual aberrations of first century Christians. A classic example of this very fact is the pass...

9:12 - 10:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin sets the historical context, explaining that the early church, like today, faced widespread sexual impurity rooted in paganism, necessitating explicit apostolic instruction…

Martin compares the way pagan Corinthian temples attracted crowds with temple prostitutes to modern evangelical churches using 'miniskirted, frizzy-haired, pop singers' to draw Sunday night crowds, illustrating the danger of worldly methods.

Well, I've lived long enough to understand why they had to send such a letter, for such days are now upon us. In the paganism of the Greco-Roman world, fornication, that is, illicit sexual activity among Christians, among the unmarried in particular, was no more considered sin than sneezing is considered sin if you've got an itch in your nose from smelling pepper. Fornication was not looked upon as anything other than a biological release. The whole concept of casual sex, recreational sex, and even religious sex, was very much a part of the world into which the gospel first came. In fact, as n...

12:32 - 13:59 Read in full sermon

The point: When tempted by salacious literature, remember the potential for addiction and eternal consequences, and 'run from the bookstore like you would run from the mouth of hell.'

Martin uses a play on the Greek word 'orgy' (for wrath) to vividly illustrate the eternal consequences of indulging in sexual sin, contrasting fleeting orgasms with the 'orgy of God's wrath' in hell.

My Bible says be not deceived. Fornicators, effeminate adults shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And I'm going to state it bluntly because of the play on words from the original. If men are determined to say I'll have orgasms with whom I will and how I will God says you will undergo the orgy of God. The Greek word for the wrath of God is orgy. And when someone says I shall have my orgasmic experiences with whom I please, when I please, how I please God says you shall have my orgy poured out upon you in the lake of fire and there are no orgasms in hell of any relationship. There is merely th...

25:01 - 26:17 Read in full sermon

The point: When tempted by salacious literature, remember the potential for addiction and eternal consequences, and 'run from the bookstore like you would run from the mouth of hell.'

Martin references John Owen's teaching on temptation and sin, explaining that every sin, even in its modest approach, has a consummate manifestation as its ultimate end, warning against initial indulgences.

right angles of the moral standards of the word of God, never forget, no one became a fornicator as a pattern of life, an adulterer as a pattern of life, a homosexual as a pattern of life who did not first of all choose to indulge in a specific fantasy of fornication, a fantasy of adultery, a fantasy of a lesbian or homosexual relationship, an initial encounter of fornication, adultery, a lesbian or homosexual relationship, and as John Owen has so masterfully demonstrated in his book on the subject of temptation and sin, every sin in its first and most modest approach has as its ultimate end t...

26:17 - 27:46 Read in full sermon

The point: When tempted by salacious literature, remember the potential for addiction and eternal consequences, and 'run from the bookstore like you would run from the mouth of hell.'

Martin shares a personal pastoral experience with a man who fantasized about sexual relations with other men from age seven, eventually becoming a practicing homosexual despite being a professing Christian and married, illustrating the danger of indulging mental fantasies.

Tell yourself, 30 seconds by that book shelf may make me an addict to pornography and to mental fornication and perhaps eventually to physical fornication that will land me in hell, run from the bookstore like you would run from the mouth of hell myself. I had the horrible experience this past year of dealing with a man in his late thirties who acknowledged that from the time he was seven years old he has fantasized about sexual relations with other men and though he went through and contracted a marriage with a Christian woman, himself a professing Christian, fathered three children, now in h...

27:46 - 29:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not watch trashy soap operas or movies with sex scenes, as they propagate the lie of casual sex and appeal to remaining sin.

Martin describes how men addicted to pornography report a temporary 'veil' that neuters spiritual realities while indulging, only for remorse to flood back afterward, illustrating the deceptive power of sexual sin.

that that union is neither cancelled nor suspended when that Corinthian went into a lapse and went up to the local temple and spent fifteen minutes with a temple prostitute he implicated his savior in his sin. That's staggering isn't it? That's what the text sets before us and you see one of the horrible subtleties particularly of sexual sins is they have an amazing power to short circuit all of the spiritual realities which at other times regulate and govern our lives I've dealt with many men addicted to pornography and almost without exception they've said to me pastor I don't understand it ...

41:48 - 43:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not watch trashy soap operas or movies with sex scenes, as they propagate the lie of casual sex and appeal to remaining sin.

Martin recounts testimonies of godly young men and women who fell into fornication after devotions, highlighting how easily spiritual realities can be forgotten when physical boundaries are crossed and circumstances allow for sin.

it's as though none of those realities exist and as soon as I turn away from it they all break in back upon me with such pressure that I feel such a depth of remorse and despair and guilt the same thing to those who have fallen into fornication godly young men and women loved Christ but didn't listen to the warnings it was too much cuddling too much snuggling too much allowance for being in places where fornication was possible no Christian couple ever fornicated with mom and dad in the next room or rarely if they were asleep but I mean if they knew it anymore they could come into the door the...

43:16 - 44:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Practice virginity and conjugal fidelity as God's answer to the problem of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Martin uses the example of penicillin-resistant gonorrhea and AIDS to illustrate how God allows diseases to arise from sexual promiscuity, affirming that men who destroy themselves through sin will face consequences.

with gluttony and drunkenness and illicit drugs something external to us is taken into us in sexual impurity the impulses and materials are from within turning not an external gift into an enemy but turning my very self against myself he that commits fornication sins against his own body and I'm personally convinced that this is why God that medical science cannot keep ahead of the various diseases that flow out of sexual promiscuity just when everyone thought penicillin has forever taken care of gonorrhea what does God do God allows a strange strain of gonorrhea to rise up that spits on every...

53:27 - 54:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider your procreative faculty as the purchased property of Christ, revolutionizing your prayerful consideration of family planning.

Martin recalls a conference with Professor Murray in 1970, where Murray's use of 'sensuous' to describe glorified bodily existence challenged Martin's sub-biblical view of the body's sanctity.

But without claiming to be an expert in textual knowledge, I'm convinced that it's questionable that he wrote in your spirit, which are his. I believe it was the introduction of an already degenerating concept of the nobility of our bodilyness as Christians. I shall never forget the day when sharing, blessed privilege, sharing a conference with Professor Murray in London back in 1970. We had a two-week school of theology.

65:43 - 66:15 Read in full sermon

The point: For engaged couples, regard your beloved as purchased by the Lord Jesus, and wait for Him to grant possession within marriage.

Martin shares his personal experience during engagement, where the conviction that his beloved was 'purchased by the Lord Jesus' helped him maintain purity despite intense physical cravings, illustrating the power of this truth.

I speak to you who are engaged, and there's already a commitment of heart and of soul and of mind, and now it's just chomping at the bit, waiting for the wedding day. And, oh, how easily you can begin to rationalize. I found this to be one of the most helpful antidotes to stepping over those barriers of illicit activity before marriage during the period of engagement, to regard my beloved as purchased by the Lord Jesus. And though God was pleased to keep me from sexual impurity outwardly as a young man, and I thank God for it, I know what it is to have every single cell in my body, every singl...

68:08 - 68:57 Read in full sermon

The point: For engaged couples, regard your beloved as purchased by the Lord Jesus, and wait for Him to grant possession within marriage.

Martin mentions a letter from a woman pleading for this sermon's message, detailing how two young girls who attended a youth conference later fell into pre-marital pregnancy and illicit relationships, underscoring the urgency of the topic.

And when a relationship is established on the deepest levels of spiritual affinity, you have a context for the most powerful stirring up of your God-given eroticism. And if you don't have the standards that are set by the Word, and convictions based on such passages as these, you're not going to make it. I wrestled with whether I should have read tonight a letter sent by a woman who used to come to this conference. And she wrote a letter to Mr. Murray, and she was pleading with him in a very gracious way that this very subject would be taken up because she said, Now, working with young people ...

70:39 - 71:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee fornication by avoiding circumstances, relationships, sites, books, and entertainments that make it possible or provoke it.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'four-star petrol' (the seven principles), a '3.8 liter engine,' and a 'high-speed gearbox' to illustrate that these convictions provide the spiritual power for effective 'fleeing fornication.'

Now, why did I leave it to the end? For this very reason. When you put the petrol of these seven principles into your gas tank, and you get your gearbox into gear with these seven principles, I tell you, you've now got a basis for some high-powered fleeing. Thank you.

72:15 - 72:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not leave in bondage to sexual sin; leave as Christ's liberated man or woman through the power of his grace.

Martin shares a personal family testimony of a young man bound by 'every imaginable sin' whose chains were snapped by God's power, illustrating the gospel's transformative ability and offering hope to those in bondage.

I have seen God take from my own family a young man who let himself be bound with every imaginable sin and snap his chains. And he sits there under the word of God every Lord's day. And as I sit on the platform, and look out, I say, Oh God, may I never doubt the power of the gospel to transform men and women. Oh, dear young man or woman who thinks it's hopeless.

79:22 - 80:01 Read in full sermon