A Noble and Divine Calling

In this part of the sermon: The second reason is that a radical commitment to God, as outlined in Romans 12:1-2, requires a growing nonconformity to the world's thinking and practices, including its views on…

The metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly illustrates that a creature becomes what it was genetically programmed to be. This is applied to believers, who are spiritually programmed by God to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, a process of transformation that requires active engagement with God's influences.

It is that we be continually transformed. Again, a present passive imperative. We are to consciously expose ourselves to the influences that will metamorphosize us to the end that we may, in our own experience, know the reality of the will of God, the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. Now think with me for a minute about the concept that we can relate to when we think of that fuzzy little caterpillar ending up in a cocoon and eventually becoming a butterfly.

26:09 - 26:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Weep over the societal climate that prevents young girls from aspiring to be wives, mothers, and homemakers.

The disruption of American cultural fabric concerning marriage, motherhood, and home during World War II, and the subsequent popularization of radical feminism by Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, is used to illustrate how worldly influences have shaped societal views away from biblical norms.

during the period of World War II which radically disrupted the prevailing climate in our American cultural fabric concerning marriage, motherhood, and the home. You hear what I'm saying? There were factors that emerged in the crisis of World War II that radically disrupted certain things that in common grace and some of it in special grace were part of the fabric of our American cultural climate. Even total secularists such as Tom Brokaw in his book The Greatest Generation identifies this and of course he praises it because he says in essence it opened the door for all the advances of subsequ...

30:03 - 31:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Weep over the societal climate that prevents young girls from aspiring to be wives, mothers, and homemakers.

The observation that no little girl or young woman, when asked about future aspirations on TV news, ever says 'I want to be a wife, a mother, and a homemaker,' illustrates the pervasive influence of philosophical feminism on a rising generation.

One of the clearest proofs of this and I think I've actually wept tears and I know I've inwardly groaned I don't watch a lot of TV news or anything else but from time to time when watching the news there will be some special occasion where educators are with their children and then they're asking them what do you want to be when you grow up and I cannot remember one little girl of any age or one young woman at a college age who when asked that question by the interviewer said I want to be a wife a mother and a homemaker. Not one! So thoroughly has the whole climate of our society been saturate...

33:34 - 35:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Weep over the societal climate that prevents young girls from aspiring to be wives, mothers, and homemakers.

Danielle Crittenden's book 'What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us' and her quote from Horace ('You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she will still hurry back') are used to show that even from a secular perspective, the natural inclinations of women towards marriage, motherhood, and homemaking are undeniable, challenging prevailing secular wisdom.

And I say to take the occasion of Mother's Day to precipitate a brief series on this issue of marriage motherhood and homemaking as a divine and noble calling is vitally necessary because we are called to nonconformity to the thinking and practice of this present world system. Now I thank God for sons such as Danielle Crittenden who in her book What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us have seen these things from a totally secular perspective. She is not a Christian she doesn't write from the base of biblical authority she writes as a well respected author and journalist and columnist and I tell you it'...

35:00 - 36:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Bible is abundantly clear in it's teaching that there is legitimacy dignity and great usefulness for women in many areas of life and service outside the sphere of marriage or marriage or marriage motherhood and home …

R.L. Dabney's analogy of the human mind as a pendulum, and Martin's own analogy of a piece of metal between two magnets, illustrate the human tendency to go to extremes when identifying error, rather than staying balanced in truth. This serves as a caution against misunderstanding the sermon's message by swinging too far from feminist error to an equally unbiblical extreme.

said this and it's been a help to me over many years we are so constituted that when we identify an error we feel we're never coming closer to the truth than we move farthest away from the error okay here's an error someone has helped oh that's the Romeus I shouldn't think that I shouldn't think in terms of a woman can only find her true identity if she breaks off the shackles of marriage and of motherhood and homemaking that's a horrible error and then they think well the way I get farthest away from the error at closest to the truth is to get to the place where I see that a woman's only sign...

39:26 - 40:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces two vital qualifications, the first being that the Bible clearly teaches the legitimacy, dignity, and usefulness of women in many areas of life and service…

The story of Euodia and Syntyche being publicly named by Paul in Philippians for their unresolved fuss illustrates the public nature of their service and Paul's direct pastoral intervention, highlighting their identity as fellow workers in the gospel, separate from marital roles.

And then, when we come to the book of Philippians, we often know about Yodi and Syntyche, because they apparently had a fuss that wasn't resolved, and Paul had the nerve to name them publicly. Can you imagine the day this letter came from Epaphroditus, he comes back to Philippi and says, Kevin, everything's fine with the apostle. I visited him there in the Roman prison, and he gives his report and said, and he sent me back with a letter. Oh, the apostle got a letter.

47:46 - 48:18 Read in full sermon

The point: View our single sisters as God does, never regarding them as less noble, less dignified, or less useful in Christ's kingdom.

The Roman Catholic dogma of Mary's perpetual virginity is used as an example of elevating celibacy to an unbiblical extreme, which Martin argues makes Mary an 'unconscionable witch' and contradicts Scripture regarding Joseph's relationship with Mary and Jesus' siblings.

idolatrous worship of Mary. And their dogma, not officially incorporated into Roman Catholic teaching until the 18th century, that Mary remained perpetually a virgin. You know what that makes Mary? It makes her an unconscionable witch. It makes her an unconscionable, reprehensible witch. For the scripture says, Joseph knew her not, had no sexual intercourse with her till she had brought forth her firstborn son. This man who so loved this young woman that he was thinking of what he should do to honorably deal with her and had decided on a course that would subject her to the least amount of soc...

57:15 - 58:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Internalize these truths so you won't be bullied or embarrassed about your role, and proudly declare your work as 'my home' on forms.

Martin's personal anecdote of filling out forms in a doctor's office and asserting his wife 'works' at home, quoting 2 Thessalonians, illustrates how believers can subtly challenge worldly perspectives and affirm the dignity of homemaking in everyday interactions.

You won't feel embarrassed when you're filling out the forms in the doctor's office. Place of employment put down in big letters and exclamation points after my home. I carry on a little one-man campaign. When they ask me, does your wife work?

66:11 - 66:31 Read in full sermon