“If the LORD Will: An Attitude Condemned”

In this part of the sermon: The sermon begins with an explanation of James's opening phrase "Come now!" as an exclamation to secure attention, especially for those most likely to miss the admonition due to…

Martin uses the analogy of a preacher trying to gain the attention of a dull, distracted congregation by clapping or pounding the pulpit to explain the force of James's 'Come now!'.

Suppose as I sat here during the offering and then observed very carefully during the singing of the hymn prior to the opening up of the scriptures that a lot of you had a very dull and glassy eyed and sort of a general blah-y look upon your faces which indicated that I didn't have your attention and suppose as I stood to speak I saw half of you gazing out the window and some of you thumbing through your Bibles and I wanted to secure your attention I might just stand here and be perfectly silent for a little bit until after a while you'd kind of look away and wonder what was happening or I mig...

8:08 - 8:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: every graveyard is witness to this your life is vapor

Life's fragility is illustrated by comparing it to the exhaust from a car on a cold morning, which appears to have form but vanishes when one tries to catch it.

and then vanish away he says another fact is very obvious to anyone that life is very fragile as to its essence as to its duration he says your life here on earth is like the puff of smoke that is here and then gone it's like the exhaust that comes out of your car in the morning when you first started up in the cold morning ever try to catch the exhaust that comes out of your daddy's car you kids try to do it you try it tomorrow morning you look out of your room as daddy cranks his car up and you see that sort of hanging there you go out and try to catch it by the time you get down the stairs ...

27:11 - 27:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: every graveyard is witness to this your life is vapor

Driving by a cemetery is given as a concrete example of how bodies that were once full of life and energy are now gone, witnessing to the vapor-like nature of human existence.

and substance and just when you think you have it it's calm now that's the fact that human experience that's not some bugaboo that Christians introduce to scare people into religion that's a fact of human experience if you don't believe it drive by a cemetery on the way home and there lie the bodies of people that were just bursting with ideas activity energy plastic they're gone puff of smoke there's a body some little kid hugged when it was a daddy there's a body which someone looked upon the dynamo of energy and activity and it's gone

27:55 - 28:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't squander the soundness of mind and body God has given you; don't go on in disregard of God or the obvious facts of life.

Martin uses the analogy of playing Russian roulette with a revolver to illustrate the foolishness and extreme risk of living outside of Christ, playing with one's eternal soul.

You know not what shall be on the morrow. Your life is a vapor. Suppose you were to happen just to drop by sometime next week unexpected, unannounced and you came into the parsonage and as my wife or you came to the door and as my wife answered the door she said, well, the pastor's busy right now but you come in and wait he'll be done in a few minutes and you came in and sitting there in the living room you saw me and seven other people sitting around our little circular coffee table on the sectional and you saw us there with a revolver with a cylinder you saw us spinning the cylinder and hold...

42:22 - 43:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if you are living with a profane disregard for anything but material values, neglecting your soul's provision and cleansing.

Martin reverses the analogy, suggesting that if parents treated their children as poorly as they treat their own souls (denying spiritual nourishment), civil authorities would intervene, highlighting the severity of spiritual neglect.

If you were to treat your soul the way you've treated your children, let me reverse it, I'm sorry, if you were to treat your children the way you've treated your soul, you'd have been dragged into court by the civil authorities long before now.

44:20 - 44:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not let the world, flesh, and devil infect you with arrogant disregard of God, willful disregard of life's facts, or profane disregard of anything but the material.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about growing up with patched clothes and bare floors, not being bitter but thankful for parents who prioritized spiritual, non-material values for their children.

Don't you let the world and the flesh and the devil infect you with this willful disregard of the facts of life and live as though you're going to live forever. And don't let the world infect you with its profane disregard of anything but the material. We can be brainwashed into feeling, you know, if we don't give our kids this and give our kids that, we're cheating them baloney. I was brought up with patched clothes most of the time.

49:34 - 50:03 Read in full sermon