Principles for Understanding the Law (1)

In this part of the sermon: Martin cites the Westminster Larger Catechism and Bishop Ezekiel Hopkins to demonstrate that responsible preachers throughout history have recognized the necessity of establishing…

Martin quotes the Westminster Larger Catechism to show that historical Reformed theology recognized the importance of establishing rules for understanding the Ten Commandments, lending weight to his own approach.

Well, any who have handled the Ten Commandments in various ways, frameworks of reference, have recognized the importance of this question. In the larger Catechism of the Westminster Standards, Question 99 asks, What rules are to be observed for the right understanding of the Ten Commandments? And then, in the answer given, there follows a list of eight specific rules that are to be followed in order to connect the Ten Commandments to God, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. to come to a right understanding of the Ten Commandments, and under those eight rules there are nothing less than dozens...

8:41 - 10:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin cites the Westminster Larger Catechism and Bishop Ezekiel Hopkins to demonstrate that responsible preachers throughout history have recognized the necessity of establishing…

Martin quotes Bishop Ezekiel Hopkins, a 17th-century preacher, who also emphasized the need for general rules to understand the 'full latitude and extent' of the Commandments, reinforcing the historical precedent for his sermon's focus.

Well, any who have handled the Ten Commandments in various ways, frameworks of reference, have recognized the importance of this question. In the larger Catechism of the Westminster Standards, Question 99 asks, What rules are to be observed for the right understanding of the Ten Commandments? And then, in the answer given, there follows a list of eight specific rules that are to be followed in order to connect the Ten Commandments to God, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. to come to a right understanding of the Ten Commandments, and under those eight rules there are nothing less than dozens...

8:41 - 10:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It goes as deep as the most hidden, deeply embedded springs of our being, as well as extends to the broadest streams of the patterns of our visible and external actions.

Martin describes the common, truncated rabbinical understanding of 'You shall not kill' as only forbidding the physical act of murder (e.g., knife, gun, poison), setting up a contrast with Jesus' deeper interpretation.

He is saying to His hearers, you are all aware of the rabbinical traditional interpretation of the sixth commandment, you shall not kill. And the common understanding perpetrated by the rabbis, by the official teachers of that day, was that the sixth commandment primarily focused upon the activity of a hand that would actually wrap itself around a knife and plunge it into a man's heart, or to use contemporary instruments of murder, the finger that actually pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. And blew someone's brains out, or the hand that would drop the poison into the cup that would take ...

19:02 - 20:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin further illustrates the first principle through Jesus' teaching on the seventh commandment, 'You shall not commit adultery,' showing that it condemns lustful looks and…

Martin explains the common rabbinical view of 'You shall not commit adultery' as limited to physical sexual union, again contrasting it with Jesus' teaching on internal lust.

Now again, what was the common understanding of the seventh commandment? When Jesus said, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. Again, He is referring in what we would call cryptic summary language that view of the seventh commandment which was current in the day of our Lord, perpetuated by the rabbis, perpetuated by the scribes and the Pharisees, and that, was basically this, that if your body is not joined to the body of another in an illicit sexual encounter, you have not broken the seventh commandment. The seventh commandment goes no further than bodily parts and ...

28:16 - 29:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that every sin forbidden and duty commanded extends to every faculty of your humanity, including your heart's affections, making you an idolater if you have inordinate attachments.

Martin uses the example of covetousness being idolatry (Colossians 3) to illustrate how an inordinate affection in the heart, though unseen, is as much a violation of the first commandment as bowing to a physical idol.

to every faculty of your humanity, so that when the Scriptures tell us, you shall have no other gods before me, that is not simply a prohibition to bowing down to something made of wood and stone that men call a god, but it has to do with the state of your heart, much so that Paul can say in Colossians chapter 3 that covetousness is idolatry, that if in your heart, unknown to anyone but you and God, you have an inordinate affection, an attachment of desire to some person or thing that goes beyond the ardor of your attachment to God, or rivals that attach. You are an idolater, as much exposed t...

39:01 - 40:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that every sin forbidden and duty commanded extends to every faculty of your humanity, including your heart's affections, making you an idolater if you have inordinate attachments.

Martin references God's reason for the flood in Noah's day—that 'the imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil continually'—to show that God's law penetrates to the deepest springs of human thought, not just external violence.

I've had it with the human race and blotted out the entire race of men in the days of Noah. This was his great complaint. He saw that the imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil continually. Now, it's interesting, isn't it, that when the situation is described externally, it is described in terms of violence filling the earth.

41:26 - 41:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates the second principle by returning to Jesus' exposition of the sixth commandment. He shows that the prohibition against murder implicitly commands the positive…

Jesus' instruction to leave a gift at the altar and first be reconciled to a brother illustrates that the sixth commandment's prohibition against murder implies the positive duty of maintaining loving relationships.

and then come and offer your gift. Here He deals with a situation where there is a fissure, a fracturing of the relationship between fellow worshipers. He calls them brothers. And He says that if in the midst of devotional exercises described here, in terms of temple worship, you are conscious that there is indeed a fissure, and that your brother has reason to have this fissure in the relationship your brother has ought against you, whether or not it's founded in reality or not. Again, that can be debated and expounding and applying the passage, but the principle is clear. Our Lord says the si...

49:00 - 50:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates the second principle by returning to Jesus' exposition of the sixth commandment. He shows that the prohibition against murder implicitly commands the positive…

Jesus' command to 'agree with your adversary quickly' further illustrates that the sixth commandment extends to maintaining amicable relationships even with those contemplating litigation, not just avoiding murder.

quickly. Here is someone who's not a brother, but apparently a worldling who has made himself an adversary to you, and is even contemplating your brother's death. And He says, contemplating litigation in the courts. And the Lord says, agree with him quickly while you are with him in the way, lest perhaps the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you shall be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, you shall no means come out thence till you've paid the last farthing. What's the heart of the significance of the words of our Lord Jesus? He is saying t...

50:12 - 51:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The principle is further illustrated with the positive commands: 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy' (implying a prohibition against treating it as common) and 'Honor your…

Martin quotes Isaiah 58:13 to show that the positive command to 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy' implicitly forbids opposite sins like pursuing one's own pleasure or speaking one's own words on that day.

he says in verse 13, Isaiah 58 and verse 13, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, my sanctified day, my set-apart day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor it, now notice, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. In other words, he says the command, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, prohibits thoughts, thoughts and words and actions that are reflective of simply regarding it as any other day. So that the duty commanded, remember the Sabbath day to ...

54:11 - 55:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The principle is further illustrated with the positive commands: 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy' (implying a prohibition against treating it as common) and 'Honor your…

Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees for using the 'Corban' tradition to neglect their indigent parents illustrates how the positive command 'Honor your father and your mother' implicitly forbids the opposite sin of dishonoring them through neglect.

with regard to the fifth commandment in Matthew 15. You'll see what our Lord does when He is going after the hypocritical actions of the Pharisees, who under the guise of devoting their substance to God were neglecting indigent parents. They were accusing Jesus of breaking their traditions and He turns upon them and says in verse 3 of Matthew 15, Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? Now notice verse 4.

55:37 - 56:12 Read in full sermon