The Corporate Means of Grace (2)

Driving home: There are no effective substitutes for the God-appointed means of grace in living the Christian life.

The incidents in Numbers 11 and 21, where Israel lusted for other food and loathed the manna, serve as a primary example of wicked unbelief and ingratitude, paralleling the church's potential to despise God's means of grace.

Anyone who has become even familiar with the broad outlines of biblical truth would agree with me that the word of God is not only the word of God, but the word of God is the word of God. When I say that some of the most outstanding manifestations, really astounding manifestations of wicked unbelief, gross ingratitude, and high-handed insulting of God are to be found in the history of the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. Among these manifestations are the incidents recorded, in Numbers 11.4 and in Numbers 21.

2:35 - 3:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Much of which is not. Given direct from Christ the head dwells in our hearts, but is mediated through his people.

The phrase 'lone ranger Christians' is used to describe individualistic believers who avoid corporate fellowship, contrasting with the early church's undeniable manifestations of spiritual oneness.

So he is using it here in its broadest sense and underscoring. That this body of people having been constituted one body by their common confession of faith in Christ, having been indwelt by the one spirit, they began to live our life in undeniable manifestations of that spiritually constituted oneness. That was theirs in the Lord Jesus. Bound up in a common life in union with Christ, they lived in a manner in their corporate interaction, which gave witness to that reality. There were no lone ranger Christians in this church. There were no hermit Christians. There were no individualist Christi...

21:06 - 22:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Much of which is not. Given direct from Christ the head dwells in our hearts, but is mediated through his people.

Martin quotes Matthew Henry's quaint description of the early church's mutual affection and 'mutual conversation' (interaction), emphasizing their intimacy and delight in meeting together.

And up in a common life, they shared their mutual concerns, their encouragements, their joy, their fears, their tears. Matthew Henry, quaintly states it at a mutual affection to each other, but a great deal of mutual conversation and he's using it in the old English sense of a mutual conversation, but a great deal of mutual conversation and he's using it in the Old English sense of a mutual affection to each other. sense of not just talking, but interaction with each other. They were much together. When they withdrew from the crooked generation, that's what Peter said they had to do, save your...

23:36 - 24:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Much of which is not. Given direct from Christ the head dwells in our hearts, but is mediated through his people.

The analogy 'like birds of a feather that flock together' illustrates the natural affinity and desire for togetherness among the early Christians.

Wherever you saw one disciple, you would see more, like birds of a feather that flock together. See how these Christians loved one another. They were concerned for one another, sympathized with one another, and heartily espoused one another's interests. And while it was in a previous lesson out of chapter 2, in 1 John, that Pastor Lamar took us to 1 Corinthians 13.

24:28 - 24:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Much of which is not. Given direct from Christ the head dwells in our hearts, but is mediated through his people.

The analogy of a man claiming love but avoiding the object of his affection, or a husband whispering tender words but never spending time with his wife, illustrates that true love for God's people necessitates a desire for their presence and involvement.

To give us an overview of the characteristics and actings of that love, which is an indispensable mark of divine life in the soul of man. A truth laid out again so powerfully in the previous hour, and surely one of the marks of love is strong affinity toward its objects and delight to be in the presence of its objects. For a man to say he loves me, and then deliberately to avoid it. For a man to say he enjoys spending time with me, is to contradict by his actions all of his passionate words of affection.

24:59 - 25:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The fourth means is 'the prayers,' referring to stated seasons of corporate prayer, demonstrating the church's persevering dependence on God's blessing, as seen in the context of…

Martin references 'Pentecostal friends and their tarrying meetings' to contrast their understanding of how the Spirit came at Pentecost with the biblical account, which emphasizes suddenness and unexpectedness rather than agonizing prayer.

And I've delighted with my Pentecostal friends and their tarrying meetings. And working. Everything up to try to get to baptism. To take them to chapter 2 in verse 1 and just describe the situation.

36:50 - 37:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: These are God's humble, changeless manna by which He has ordained to sustain the life of His people.

The corporate means of grace are described as 'God's humble, changeless manna,' emphasizing their divine origin, sustaining power, and the danger of despising them, just as Israel despised the literal manna.

And. Each. these mentioned are timeless and relevant to the people of God in every age and in every place. May I say it reverently? These are God's humble, changeless manna by which He has ordained to sustain the life of His people. And whenever the church gets rested with God's manna, bread, and begins to loathe God's manna, judgment will follow upon the church as surely as it fell upon Israel. And there's no worse judgment than temporary excitement that bears some semblance of spirituality that leads to cynicism, deception, and disillusionment.

42:07 - 43:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: These are God's humble, changeless manna by which He has ordained to sustain the life of His people.

The example of a 'six foot seven, three hundred pound offensive linemen' is used to critique the church's tendency to seek famous personalities or worldly credibility, arguing that God uses humble means to bring conviction.

No. There's a relatively simple and brief list of the means of corporate blessing which God himself instituted. No festivals of music, no dancing troupes, no acting troupes, no famous personalities to give their testimony to validate the message of Christ. For unless you have the six foot seven, three hundred pound offensive linemen who can say, he belongs to Jesus, how will Jesus have any credibility among people who worship six foot seven, three hundred pound linemen? No, no, my friend, it's far more likely God will get to a six foot seven, three hundred pound lineman with the credibility of...

45:00 - 46:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But when God visits His church in revival, what's one of the marks? She goes back to the simplicity of God's ordainment.

Men's inventions in the church are likened to 'perfume to sprinkle on the stinking, rotten stench of death' when life wanes, contrasting with God's method of revival which returns to simplicity.

Men's inventions always come along to try to truss up the dying corpse. And men's inventions become perfume to sprinkle on the stinking, rotten stench of death. But when God visits His church in revival, what's one of the marks? She goes back to the simplicity of God's ordainment.

51:45 - 52:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But when God visits His church in revival, what's one of the marks? She goes back to the simplicity of God's ordainment.

The sin of Nadab and Abihu offering 'strange fire' is used as a stark warning against inventing one's own means of worship and asking God's blessing upon them, emphasizing God's intolerance for unauthorized worship.

is to be guilty of playing with the strange fire of Nadab in a bayou. And only the mercy of God has kept many a man and many a church from being swallowed up as were those two impudent sons of Aaron.

52:50 - 53:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Get honest about the sin (addiction to TV, certain liberties, food, pride, ungoverned tongue, hasty temper, unforgiving spirit) that is grieving the Spirit and choking off the means of grace in your heart.

The image of 'flourishing like palm tree' is used to describe believers who are growing spiritually under the same ministry, contrasting with those who are not, prompting self-examination.

I see others under the same ministry flourishing like palm tree,

60:36 - 60:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to maintain all of God's appointed means of grace and resist unto death the intrusion of any man-made substitute.

Martin shares a personal reflection on his father's death and his own mortality, using it to underscore the urgency of his burden for the church to maintain God's appointed means of grace after he is gone.

The glory of Christ and the good of His people will be willing to maintain all of God's appointed means of grace and resist unto death the intrusion of any man-made substitute. As I think of my own mortality, and if I seem to be unusually sober these days, it's not just because I miss my wife who's away. I'm trying to sort out. man goes through when his father dies. And he knows from being second in rank of those who will be swept away into his grave, I've now been pushed up to the first line. And as I think of that, one of the burdens of my heart is, oh God, are there men and women in Trinity...

62:53 - 64:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of the spirit that 'loathes this light dread' (God's simple means) and complains about the 'same old stuff' in church.

The phrase 'our soul loathes this light dread' is used to describe the spirit of discontentment and boredom with God's simple, repeated means of grace, echoing Israel's complaint about the manna.

If you're one of those, have dealings with God today. Have dealings with God. And if you're one of those who already hear, we have them from time to time, that begin to take up the language of the Israelites in the wilderness. Our soul loathes this light dread. Same old stuff, week by week. We know what the next psalm is going to be. We know what the next chapter is going to be. We know what the next chapter is going to be. We know what the next sermon and the next lesson is going to be. And we know what the prayer meetings are going to be. We loathe this manner. Oh, my friend, beware of that ...

65:08 - 66:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes with a prayer of thanksgiving for God's Word, repentance for discontentment with His means, and a plea for mercy on the church to return to confidence in God's…

The professing church is described as an 'onion house, a garlic house, a leek house' to illustrate its adoption of worldly forms of entertainment and thought patterns, contrasting with God's manna.

Father, we do thank you for your presence with us throughout this morning. How good you have been to feed us with manna from heaven. Oh, we would repent of our sins of ever growing restive and discontent with your manna. Forever having the slightest desire for the leeks, the onions, and the garlic of Egypt. And Lord, we see your professing church, an onion house, a garlic house, a leek house, the world's forms of entertainment, the world's thought patterns, psychologizing the gospel, redefining sin, redefining grace. Oh, God, have mercy, have mercy, have mercy upon your professing. And in migh...

66:47 - 68:04 Read in full sermon