Our Love Must Be Properly Protected

The point: Be utterly committed to the protection of the grace of love for Christ.

Compares love for Christ to an exotic plant that needs proper rooting, nurturing, and protection from pests, diseases, and harsh weather to survive and thrive, illustrating the multi-faceted care required for spiritual love.

Like an exotic plant that can never grow unless it is rooted well in proper soil with the right pH balance. And then is nurtured by right pH balance. And then is nurtured by right pH balance. And then is nurtured by right pH balance.

13:03 - 13:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And if the winning of the heart is the great work in conversion, the Puritan said, so the great work in the Christian life is keeping the heart with Christ.

Used as an example of someone whose heart was enmeshed with riches, preventing him from giving Christ supreme affection, illustrating the struggle of winning the heart to Christ.

He will not share that affection which is due to him with anyone who would rival that measure of affection which is his due as God, and as the only redeemer of sinners. As one of the Puritans said, the great work in conversion is to win the heart to Christ. That's the great work in conversion. That was the struggle with the rich young ruler.

19:33 - 20:06 Read in full sermon

The point: If your interest in an opposite-sex relationship makes you more preoccupied with outward appearance rather than nurturing your love to Christ, it is idolatry.

Samson's repeated failures with women are cited to illustrate the danger of allowing lust to dictate relationships, weakening love for God, and raising questions about his spiritual state apart from Hebrews 11.

Remember Samson? He never learned this lesson. If God didn't put Samson among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, none of us would think he had the root of the matter in him. You'd never know it.

32:46 - 32:58 Read in full sermon

The point: It is not shameful to break off a relationship, even if it has gone far, if it is weakening the vigor of your love to Christ.

David's sin with Bathsheba is used to illustrate how a second look, motivated by fleshly desire rather than love for God, can lead to sin and weaken spiritual vigor.

But it's not just Samson concerning whose state we have questions if God didn't settle it by putting him in Hebrews 11. But look at David, the man after God's own heart. When he first cast his eyes upon Bathsheba, his thought was, Will the second look intensify my eye for my God and my Redeemer? But will the second look please my flesh?

33:14 - 33:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of any pursuit of the things of this world which weakens the vigor of your love to Christ.

A quote from Pilgrim's Progress, where Evangelist advises Christian to 'let nothing, this side of the world to come, get within you,' illustrating the need for an external relationship with worldly things, not an internal attachment.

It says he forsook us, having loved this present age. You remember in Pilgrim's Progress, one of the bits of advice that Evangelist gave to Christian was this, let nothing, this side of the world to come, get within you. Evangelist knew that Christian had to be in constant contact with many things that would be consumed with this world when it goes up in the fires of the final conflagration at the coming of the Lord Jesus with his mighty angels. He understood that Christian had to be en rapport, in contact with, and constant interaction with this real world. But he said, Christian, let nothing...

39:03 - 40:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin warns against the pursuit of worldly things, interpreting Mark 4:19 on the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of the world. He cites Demas and 1 Timothy 6:6-10 to…

Martin recounts finding an old church photo from 1975 and reflecting on the 'living tragedy' of some who, as children or adults, later repudiated the faith, often due to pursuing worldly things that weakened their love for Christ.

That's usually one of my projects Monday mornings to tidy up my study. Books all over the place and notes and papers from preparation for the academy and on into the Lord's day. And I want to do something and do some extra cleaning somewhere in a little storage area. I've got buried an old reel-to-reel tape of our wedding.

45:38 - 45:57 Read in full sermon

The point: For those who know nothing of love to Christ, cry to Him for mercy and know His grace, making Him the object of your trust and supreme devotion.

An extended quote from Charles Spurgeon's 'Morning and Evening' meditation on the Nazarite vow, illustrating the principle of strict separation unto God as the 'safest and happiest' way, warning against world conformity and doubtful things.

That word narrow means compressed easy, laid back stick your hands in the pocket whistle Dixie and look at the clouds trip to heaven dear folks. Bunyan didn't describe it that way. There were bogs and there were ditches and there were the enemies of Apollyon and giant despair and all the other things that Christian and his companions met with in the way. I conclude to let you know that that great perhaps the greatest preacher of free grace and the beauty and the glory of Christ since the days of the apostle Charles Spurgeon and I have fed my soul for two years now on his morning and evening ha...

60:52 - 62:20 Read in full sermon