Our Duty Toward the Rising Generation (3)

The point: Break loose from the mentality of the average American on Memorial Day weekend, giving thanks to God for liberties and crying to Him for mercy and saving power to arrest the nation's downward slide.

Martin uses the metaphor of angels weeping profusely at the present American generation's obsession with carnal pleasures and indifference to past and future, especially on Memorial Day weekend, to highlight the tragedy of spiritual forgetfulness.

angels when any generation becomes so obsessed with the present pursuit of carnal pleasures that the past is buried in willful ignorance or careless forgetfulness and when the future is regarded as unworthy of serious reflection or of making any self-denying demands upon us in the present. And assuredly then if angels do weep they must weep profusely at this generation of angels.

3:50 - 4:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He introduces the third essential: unfeigned love for one another as disciples of Christ, expounding John 13:34-35. This 'new commandment' reflects Christ's selfless, self-giving…

He quotes an author who titled a commentary on John 13-17 'The Inner Sanctuary' to convey the intimate and profound nature of Christ's discourse with His disciples, setting the stage for the 'new commandment' of love.

Yes, unquenched love to the person of Christ, uncompromising adherence to the truth of Christ, but there must also be unfeigned love for one another as the disciples of Christ. When our Lord was about to finish his work on earth, he opened his heart in the most intimate way in the chapters of our Bible. What he said is recorded in John 13 through 16. One author commenting on those chapters, plus the prayer of chapter 17, entitled his commentary, The Inner Sanctuary.

17:30 - 18:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What is new is the commandment to love one another, taking all of its contours and all of its savor from the work that Christ would accomplish in his love to his own. Look at the text. A new commandment I give unto you, …

He contrasts the superficial 'love' seen in a bridge club or flower club with the selfless, self-giving love of Christ, to clarify the profound nature of the love commanded in John 13:34-35.

Not the kind of love that binds a bunch of elderly women together in their bridge club on Tuesday afternoons. If you go by and look at them, you'd say they really love one another. They enjoy one another. They enjoy speaking and playing bridge or the local flower club or whatever it is that binds people together in the semblance of some measure of loving intimacy.

22:29 - 22:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Give diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit, consciously and deliberately cultivating every grace that promotes unity and militates against disruption, such as lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and forbearance.

Martin recounts a man asking why he and the elders were 'paranoid' about disaffection, allowing him to explain their jealousy for unity based on Psalm 133 and the fear of grieving the Holy Spirit.

I had a man once ask me, we were on a first name basis, he said, Al, why are you and your fellow elders so paranoid about one or two people becoming disaffected? Why are you so paranoid? And I looked him straight in the eye and I said, my brother, Psalm 133 says, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity for there the Lord commands blessing.

45:11 - 45:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate the graces of lowliness and meekness, having the mind of Christ from Philippians 2, rather than allowing pride to cause contention and fracture the body of Christ.

He describes how some members, having experienced divisive church meetings elsewhere, came to Trinity's meetings with trepidation, only to be surprised by the peace and order, illustrating the rarity and value of their unity.

And it won't just maintain itself. And that's what some of you, you see, you really don't believe because you've never known the other. Some of you have. And the first time you came to a congregational meeting, an annual meeting, you came holding your breath saying, oh no, is everything I've enjoyed and been blessed by going to go down the tubes?

46:09 - 46:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin shares a touching story of a woman accompanying her father to Normandy, where three generations of Belgians showed profound gratitude to American veterans for their…

A grown woman accompanies her father, a D-Day veteran, to Normandy, where three generations of Belgians express profound gratitude for their liberation, illustrating the powerful impact of passing on a heritage and the price paid for freedom.

unyielding unyielding adherence to corporate holiness according to the directives of Christ in summarizing and bringing the message to a conclusion this morning coming around full circle to where we began about the necessity of looking back and knowing our heritage and giving thanks for it and then committing ourselves to preserve it intact and pass it on to others insofar as it lies within our power I came across a very touching story in one of the Christian magazines that comes to my home a grown woman

56:47 - 57:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Under God, appreciate and understand the spiritual heritage given, and determine to hold it intact and pass it on to the rising generation, no matter the cost.

Martin draws an analogy between the price paid by soldiers for liberation and the spiritual 'price paid' by the founding generation of Trinity Baptist Church (wrestling with Scripture, facing severed friendships) to establish its biblical foundations.

for there were three generations of appreciative intelligent foreigners waiting for this American woman and her ex-soldier dad now in his seventies dear people of God that's what I've been preaching about in this manifesto people paid a price that there might be a trinity church with the word of God they weren't playing video games by the hours and they weren't out in the gosses by the hours

61:55 - 62:39 Read in full sermon

The point: If unconverted, seek a new nature, a new heart, and a new disposition in the person of God's dear Son, Christ, to feel at home in a climate of love for Christ, His word, His people, and holiness.

He uses the metaphor of Christ as the hub of a bicycle wheel, with all the spiritual 'spokes' (love, truth, unity, holiness) attached to Him, to illustrate that without Christ, the church's life and soul are gone, leaving only 'wire spaghetti.'

or a visitor wondering what we're all about I hope you've made at least one simple conclusion that the reference point of everything I've said has been Christ himself we've talked about the maintenance of an unquenched passion of love for the person of Christ and attachment to the word of Christ and loving one another as disciples of Christ and maintaining unity as the body of Christ and maintaining corporate holiness according to the standards of Christ and that hasn't been done to sound clever because my friend at the end of the day that's the heart

68:33 - 69:18 Read in full sermon