Biblical Framework of All Thinking, Part 2

Driving home: I am not only dependent on the will of God for my existence, but I am dependent on the word of God for my directives, and thirdly, I am dependent upon the grace and the power of God for my existence. And I am dependent u…

Martin mentions Pastor Bob Martin's previous lessons on being an image-bearer of God, which provided a foundation for understanding identity in relation to God's will.

And I suggested to you that that framework can be expressed in a very intensely personal way, in these three statements. Statement number one, I expressed this way, that I am dependent upon the will of God for my existence. And, we had no more time than to open up, by way of considering a number of pivotal passages, the great truth that we are not prepared to face the practical duties of the Christian life, we are not prepared, prepared to address such crucial issues as the issues of male and female identity, roles, relationships, responsibilities, and all of these other things unless we have ...

3:21 - 4:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Be prepared to refuse the mindset of the world and be transformed by the renewing of your minds, thinking in terms of your identity as God's creatures.

He uses the image of Rodin's 'The Thinker' to represent the rationalist's approach of finding directives within oneself, contrasting it with God's method of revelation.

The powers of Adam and Eve before the fall, and what those mental powers might have been. But you see, there is no suggestion that God made Adam and Eve and then set them down and said, Adam, now sit on a rock in the posture of the famous thinker statue. You remember the man sitting there bent over thinking? And find the directives within yourself. You see, that's what a rationalist would say, that man's mind is the measure, the measure of all that he is to know and all that he is responsible to do. Now, let me throw out another question. What would a transcendentalist tell Adam and Eve to do ...

9:51 - 10:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He turns to Genesis 1-2, demonstrating that unfallen Adam, despite perfect perception, received verbal, propositional revelation from God concerning how to live, proving man's…

Martin explains astigmatism, nearsightedness (myopia), and farsightedness (hypermetropia) as physical eye problems, then uses them as a metaphor for spiritual distortions caused by sin, contrasting them with Adam's perfect '20-20 vision' before the fall.

And so here in the garden, where Adam could look out upon his world with perfect vision, God nonetheless gave him verbal directives as to how he was to relate to his world. Now if we can call this the eyeball, there's the eyelashes, of Adam's soul, there are three basic kinds of abnormalities in human sight. Some people have a problem that I have, particularly my left eye, and that's called the stigmatism, and that's where there's some even unevenness over the lens, that when we look out at any object, instead of things coming through the lens and all focusing sharply on the retina, they don't...

17:37 - 18:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What we do find is that from the beginning, there are objectively revealed precepts, institutions, commandments, which are the norms and channels of human behavior. Even man in innocence was not permitted to carve for hi…

He quotes John Murray's 'Principles of Conduct' to support the argument that man, even in innocence, was not autonomous but received objectively revealed precepts for behavior, including fundamental urges like food and sex.

It's the textbook we use in a discussion course in the academy, in our ethics course, Professor Murray's book, The Principles of Conduct, now out of print. Hopefully, it will get back into print. And this is what Professor Murray observes on this very point on page 24. When we examine the witness of Scripture itself, as to the origin of the standards of behavior which the Scripture approves, we do not find that love is allowed to discover or dictate its own standards or patterns of conduct.

21:11 - 21:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not trust in your own heart, for 'whoso trusteth in his own heart, is a fool.'

He recounts the character Talkative from Pilgrim's Progress, who trusts his own heart for assurance, illustrating the folly of self-trust condemned in Proverbs 28:26.

You want to be a fool? Then you trust in your own heart. You remember in Pilgrim's Progress, when you have that interchange between talkative and one of the true pilgrims, and they're trying to expose to talkative, the fact that that's what he is. He's a man whose religion is all in his mouth.

29:26 - 29:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Prove your love to Christ by keeping His commandments, not by looking to stars or human experts.

Martin cites Dr. Spock's later repudiation of his own child-rearing advice, highlighting the 'tyranny of the experts' and the tragic consequences of following human wisdom over biblical principles.

We will not look out to the experts. Some of us have lived long enough to see the horrible fruit of the tyranny of the experts. After he'd ruined a whole generation, or in great measure contributed to the ruin of a whole generation, Dr. Spock in his mid-seventies wrote an article in which he repudiated most of the things by which he had urged a generation to rear its children.

31:05 - 31:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Prove your love to Christ by keeping His commandments, not by looking to stars or human experts.

He tells the story of a man who established a major abortion clinic but later produced 'The Silent Scream' after being convinced by observing life in the womb that abortion kills human life, illustrating the danger of relying on human 'experts' who contradict God's truth.

You know who's put out the movie, The Silent Scream, in an attempt to convince the conscience of our legislators that abortion is the killing of human life? It's the very man who set up the biggest abortion mill in New York City and was responsible for the slaying of countless thousands. He was the great expert who had declared, you're not killing human life until, without any subjection to biblical revelation, just the facts of watching life in the womb, and convinced him he was dead wrong. But now the monster he created still grinds up babies by the mill.

31:40 - 32:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Let God be true about what it is to be a man and a woman, and let every man be a liar. Let every PhD in sociology be a liar. But let God be true. Let God be true.

He uses the cynical acronym 'piled higher and deeper' for PhD to critique human wisdom when it is pitted against the wisdom of God, emphasizing that degrees do not sanctify ungodly counsel.

Ungodly counsel is not made godly because it happens to be given by people with PhDs. Now, some PhDs are well-educated people. But in others, someone has said PhD stands for piled higher and deeper. And what's piled higher and deeper is the folly of man's wisdom pitted against the wisdom of God.

33:51 - 34:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, in the consciousness and confidence that God is working in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

He uses Jesus' metaphor of the vine and branches from John 15 to illustrate the organic, living relationship between Christ and His people, and their absolute dependence on Him for bearing spiritual fruit.

I want to present myself a living sacrifice, I want to prove the will of God, I don't want to be molded by the world, but transformed by the renewing of my mind, but as God gives me increasing light as to what I am to be and to do, I must learn to think constantly, I can only do these things by the grace and power of God. John chapter 15, In this passage our Lord likens His relationship to His people as the relationship between a vine and its seed, and its branches. That is a living, organic relationship, and the branch can only bear fruit so long as it is organically, livingly united to the v...

35:44 - 37:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Strive to have the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, believing that in Jesus Christ there is grace enough to clothe you with it, despite genetic predispositions or upbringing.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about his past construction work, where he could see tangible results, to emphasize that he would give up preaching if he didn't believe in the transformative power of God's grace in Christ.

Well, you become convinced that that's what God says you're to strive to have. The adornment of a meek and a quiet spirit. And in Jesus Christ there's grace enough to even make you someone who is clothed with a meek and quiet spirit. Now, dear people, if that isn't so then I'm going to pack up and go back to doing construction work because at least there when I mixed the mud and carried it to the mason I could come back three months later and see the foundation we built and the fireplace we built and the chimney we built and have something to show for my labors.

47:26 - 48:01 Read in full sermon