Supremacy; Response to the Multitude of Sins

The point: Beware of rigid preaching schedules; be sensitive to the present state of the flock and bring needed emphases.

Martin compares a pastor's need for flexibility in preaching to a doctor altering a patient's diet based on physical illness, illustrating the need to address specific, current needs of the congregation.

Now, in my own contacts with you as an under-shepherd in the past weeks, there has been a growing conviction that we desperately need to have some facets of this biblical concept of brotherly love opened up, enlarged, and applied to our consciences with some degree of particular emphasis in certain areas. And so, since the theme was suggested in our study last week, I'm going to digress from the exposition of the next verses in Ephesians under what I trust is a genuine pastoral sensitivity and pastoral concern. And I say to you, young men, aspiring to the ministry, if time proves that God has ...

2:41 - 4:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin asserts that brotherly love is the 'queen of all graces' and demonstrates its supremacy by reading numerous New Testament passages without comment, aiming to overwhelm the…

Martin describes his profound experience of speed-reading all exhortations to Christian duty in the epistles, which impressed upon him the overwhelming supremacy of brotherly love.

And I refer, of course, to John's words, such as we find, in his second epistle, in which he says, So whatever we say of love, it is put in the context of the truth of Scripture by which alone love can be known and within which context love is to be expressed. Now, what I wish to do this morning is first of all, to confront you with the supremacy of the grace of brotherly love. What place should brotherly love hold in the thinking and the experience of the people of God? Well, it ought to hold the place in our thinking and in our experience that it holds in Scripture. And so if we are to know ...

5:23 - 6:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Focusing on 1 Peter 4:8, Martin highlights the text's major assumption: that in any group of saved men and women, there will be 'a multitude of sins,' even among those pursuing…

Martin uses the analogy of a football coach's halftime speech to illustrate that Peter's exhortation in 1 Peter 4:8 assumes the ongoing reality of a 'ball game' – a multitude of sins – within the church.

Suppose the coach is in the locker room and he says to the guys in the halftime now, fellas, let's get out there in the second half and hit hard. Let's play good basic football, blocking, tackling. Let's take that ball over the goal line and let's win it for the dear old alma mater in the second half. Well, you see, if he's giving exhortations like that, it's assuming certain things.

30:07 - 30:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not mark, broadcast, or harp upon the sins of others; instead, have fervent, earnest, and constant love that covers them.

Martin uses the metaphor of a man plunking on one string of a harp to describe how repeatedly dwelling on a brother's fault can disaffect minds and separate chief friends.

Chapter 17 and verse 9. He that covereth a transgression, seeketh love, but he that harpeth on the matter, separateth chief friends. What happens? Some brethren have been dwelling together in unity.

39:19 - 39:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin poses the question of how to deal with one another's sins, warning against marking, broadcasting, or harping on them, which leads to strife and separation. He then presents…

Martin explains that love 'casts a veil' over a brother's sins, preventing them from being rubbed or picked at until they fester, similar to Moses' veil.

Now it's interesting that that word cover in its noun form is the word translated in 2 Corinthians 3. Moses had a veil upon his face. What does love do? It casts a veil over the sins of my brother.

42:02 - 42:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that love's covering operation is primarily internal, affecting one's mind (refusing to retain wrongs), affections (preventing rancor), tongue (refusing to harp or…

Martin uses the analogy of fresh snow covering the weeds, stakes, and unraked leaves in his backyard to illustrate how love covers a multitude of sins, making them out of sight, though not removing them.

One of the reasons I'm longing for that first snow and I do each year is that I always see the things that I could have done out in the backyard that I didn't get done in the fall. I see some of the weeds still there in the garden area that I should have pulled up. They're ugly looking because they're, you know, weeds can be pretty when at least they're green. But when they're all brown and dead and drooping over.

43:59 - 44:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Live with a constant sense of your own sins and failures, which will enable you to have fervent love that covers the sins of others.

Martin uses a sarcastic hypothetical example of bringing a hypercritical person to the front of the church to declare their perfection, aiming to sting those who are quick to criticize others while forgetting their own sins.

What is one of the integral parts of our daily prayer life? Jesus said, after this manner pray ye. And we're not to live a day without crying out, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You know what I'd like to do with some of you who are so hypercritical of others?

52:46 - 53:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember the magnitude of God's forgiveness to you, which should cultivate a forgiving spirit towards your brethren.

Martin uses the image of a Pharisee drawing his robes around him to criticize those who act as if they have attained such holiness that they no longer need the forbearance of others.

Remember, it's the Pharisee who draws his robes around him and says, I, my friend, when you get to the place where you've attained such degrees of holiness and perfection that you don't need the patient forbearance of the people of God, then you let us know, and we'll put you in a glass case and take you around to all the churches in the world as a museum piece, something that's never appeared on the scene before. You say, Pastor, you're being facetious. No, I trust I'm, I trust it's a sanctity and a sanctified use of irony to make some of you feel the sting of the terrible sin of an attitude ...

54:01 - 54:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember the magnitude of God's forgiveness to you, which should cultivate a forgiving spirit towards your brethren.

Martin facetiously suggests putting a perfectly holy person in a glass case as a museum piece, highlighting the unrealistic and unbiblical nature of expecting sinless perfection in this life.

Remember, it's the Pharisee who draws his robes around him and says, I, my friend, when you get to the place where you've attained such degrees of holiness and perfection that you don't need the patient forbearance of the people of God, then you let us know, and we'll put you in a glass case and take you around to all the churches in the world as a museum piece, something that's never appeared on the scene before. You say, Pastor, you're being facetious. No, I trust I'm, I trust it's a sanctity and a sanctified use of irony to make some of you feel the sting of the terrible sin of an attitude ...

54:01 - 54:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember the magnitude of God's forgiveness to you, which should cultivate a forgiving spirit towards your brethren.

Martin references the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18) to illustrate the magnitude of God's forgiveness and the corresponding obligation for believers to forgive their brethren from the heart.

Here's the man, the master forgave him a great debt. He goes around and finds his servant who owed him a little bit and grabs him by the throat and says, come on, Buster, pay up. Where else do you have it? And when the master heard about him, he says, you take that wicked servant and you bring judgment on him.

54:58 - 55:15 Read in full sermon