The Pastor's Spiritual Development, Part 3

The point: Get the sermon series on Acts 24:16 if you've not had good teaching on the vital place of a good conscience in persevering in the Christian faith.

Martin uses the analogy of 'mystical thumb-sucking' to describe devotional reading and prayer that do not result in heightened ethical conformity, implying a self-indulgent, immature, and ultimately ineffective spiritual practice.

Back in 1982, I preached a series of messages on that text, and if you've not had any good teaching on the vital place of a good conscience in persevering in the Christian faith, I'd urge you to get that series and listen to it. But suffice it to say that these two previous exercises, of devotional assimilation of the Word and maintaining the habit and spirit of prayer, must find concrete expression in an increasing ethical conformity to the will of God. If not, they have degenerated into just so much mystical thumb-sucking. There is supposed growth in devotional reading of the Word and in the...

1:14 - 2:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Get the sermon series on Acts 24:16 if you've not had good teaching on the vital place of a good conscience in persevering in the Christian faith.

The charismatic movement is cited as an example of experiences that are real and exhilarating but often not genuine because they don't necessarily make one a better person, illustrating the danger of spiritual feelings without ethical transformation.

And it is possible to have marvelous experiences and not be a better man for them. That is the great attraction of the charismatic movement, because...

2:31 - 2:45 Read in full sermon

The point: If a duty is made plain, immediately put it into practice or make a commitment of the will to do it, otherwise your conscience will be bloody.

The metaphor of 'reeking with the smell of the sin you've just committed' is used to vividly describe the state of a sinner who needs to go to the cross, emphasizing the humility required to confess one's foulness before God.

It's pride that keeps people from going to the cross, reeking with the smell of the sin they've just committed. Because they don't want to go to God and say, Oh God, I stink. The sin I've committed, the smell of it is still on me. You go in that posture and you see all self-righteousness and self-help schemes, they're blasted.

5:33 - 5:53 Read in full sermon

The point: If a duty is made plain, immediately put it into practice or make a commitment of the will to do it, otherwise your conscience will be bloody.

A line from a hymn, 'Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Foul, foul, foul, foul, foul light of the fountain,' is quoted to illustrate the posture of humility and dependence on Christ's cleansing blood, not self-improvement, when seeking forgiveness.

You've got to say, Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Foul, foul, foul, foul, foul light of the fountain.

5:54 - 6:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek biblically to resolve any area of ethical abnormality with your fellow men.

Martin gives the example of preachers blaming their 'almighty ministry' for their sins against their wives, rather than their own hearts, to illustrate how people hide sin and avoid taking personal responsibility, thereby bloodying their conscience.

And so, if you're to have a conscience void of offense to God, this is what we're talking about. What about a conscience void of offense toward man? What does that mean? Well, that means that I have sought biblically to resolve any area of ethical abnormality with my fellow men. I have sought biblically to resolve any area of ethical abnormality with my fellow men. If I have been insensitive to my wife, I'm going to have to resolve any area of ethical prepared to go and say, Dear, I sinned. Will you forgive me? And my sin was not that my almighty ministry made me do it. You see, preachers don'...

7:17 - 8:07 Read in full sermon

The point: When short and insensitive to your kids, gather them around and confess your sins.

Martin recounts a personal story of lying during a morning service about a hymn announcement and having to confess it publicly before leading prayer. This serves as a powerful example of the radical commitment required to maintain a conscience void of offense toward man, even at personal cost.

made me do it. They say, My ministry made me do it. And they hide more sins behind their almighty ministry. No wonder their wives are bitter to the ministry. The ministry is this devil who makes their husbands sin the way they sin. You don't blame it on your ministry. You blame it on your own heart. Blame it on yourself. And when you're short and insensitive to the kids, you gather them around you and confess your sins. If you're arrogant and opinionated in the midst of working with your elders and your deacons, you confess your arrogance and your opinionatedness. And if you've been insensitiv...

8:07 - 9:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If you can sin knowingly in the presence of Almighty God, you'll do anything.

Martin cites examples of preachers committing atrocious sins like seducing children or having affairs to illustrate the ultimate consequence of learning to serve publicly with a bloodied conscience, showing how it hardens the heart to any sin.

I'm not shocked when I hear that preachers commit some of the most atrocious sins, seduce little boys in the congregation, shack up with their secretaries. I'm not surprised.

11:04 - 11:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Moody's old saying is accurate, sin will keep you from this book, or this book will keep you from sin.

The analogy of 'integrated circuitry' is used to explain how a defiled conscience negatively impacts other spiritual disciplines like Bible reading and prayer, showing their interconnectedness.

Now the importance of a healthy conscience. A healthy conscience cannot be overemphasized. Remember the integrated circuitry? A defiled conscience will take away all of your relish for the word of God, because you know you ain't going to read far any place in this book, but what pressure is going to be brought to bear upon your conscience.

12:33 - 12:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Moody's old saying is accurate, sin will keep you from this book, or this book will keep you from sin.

D.L. Moody's saying, 'sin will keep you from this book, or this book will keep you from sin,' is quoted to illustrate the direct conflict between a defiled conscience and engaging with God's Word.

If the passage points to God, God in his infinite majesty, contemplated by the human mind, will bring home to your heart your sin. And if it's dealing with duty, it doesn't matter where you turn. That's why Moody's old saying is accurate, sin will keep you from this book, or this book will keep you from sin. And if you have a defiled conscience, you'll begin to find all kinds of reasons on a given day why you can skip that allocated time for devotional assimilation of the word.

12:52 - 13:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But if God doesn't take me home, to back off through weariness is to invite dullness, apathy, loss of the felt presence of God. I'm weary.

A lengthy quotation from John Owen (via Alexander's 'Thoughts on Preaching') is used to explain the two primary doors to backsliding and apostasy: a great sin that bloodies the conscience, or a course of neglect in private duties due to weariness.

It's vital. Listen to Owen, quoted by Alexander in Thoughts on Preaching, page 110, I am persuaded, says Owen, that there are very few that apostatize from the profession of any continuance such as our days abound with, that their door of entrance into the folly of backsliding was either, now listen to the perceptive Owen, either some great and notorious sin that bloodied their consciences. Tainted their affections and intercepted all delight of having anything more to do with God, or else it was a course of neglect in private duties arising from a weariness of contending against that powerful...

14:13 - 15:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But if God doesn't take me home, to back off through weariness is to invite dullness, apathy, loss of the felt presence of God. I'm weary.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'fighting in that same trench' for thirty-plus years to describe his personal experience of weariness in contending against the flesh's aversion to spiritual duties, making Owen's point relatable.

You see, I started my contending about ten years earlier than most people do, because getting saved and being thrust into the ministry were almost simultaneous. And after thirty-plus years of fighting in that same trench, I'm weary! But if God doesn't take me home, to back off through weariness is to invite dullness, apathy, loss of the felt presence of God. I'm weary.

16:27 - 16:59 Read in full sermon

The point: At any cost, learn to keep a good conscience, void of offense to God and man, always, no matter how agonizing it may be.

Martin contrasts an 'ecclesiastical meteor' (an impressive but short-lived preacher) with a 'good fruit tree' (a pastor who produces fruit year after year) to illustrate the difference between superficial ministry and sustained, effective ministry rooted in deep spiritual development.

As you do, then you will find that these other disciplines and exercises in that integrated circuitry will flourish by the grace and blessing of God. Now, if you're to be an effective pastoral preacher, not some impressive six-sermon wonder who shoots across the horizon like some ecclesiastical meteor, but someone who, like a good fruit tree, grows in the backyard and produces year in and year out, decade after decade, you're going to need a real, expanding, varied, and original acquaintance with God and His ways. And there's only one way to get it. And that's by the assimilation of the Word o...

17:35 - 18:43 Read in full sermon