Deliverance From the Fear of Men

In this part of the sermon: He provides scriptural examples: Paul, who declared he was not seeking the favor of men (Galatians 1:10) and spoke as pleasing God (1 Thessalonians 2:4), and who prayed for…

Elihu describes his heart as a wine skin with no vent, ready to burst, illustrating the intense internal pressure he felt to speak God's truth without holding back, despite his youth and the esteemed company.

I also will answer on my part I will show my opinion for I am full of words the spirit within me constrains me behold my breast is as wine which hath no vent like new wine skins it is ready to burst do you get the imagery there a man has had his wine pressed out and put it into the fresh skin of one of his animals and tied off the corners and then as the days pass and the wine begins to ferment the gases go out he hasn't opened up the vent hole and now it's stretched to the point where if you feel like you touch it the whole thing would just burst open he said that's what my heart is like

24:29 - 25:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that as a pastor knows his people more, he becomes aware of their sensitive issues and 'raw nerves,' increasing the temptation to compromise truth. Without growing…

Martin recounts experiences where he preached to strangers, unknowingly hitting 'raw nerves' in their lives, illustrating how a preacher can be bold when unaware of specific sensitivities, but this becomes harder as he gets to know his people.

experience this now in your occasional preaching in various places. You don't know from nothing about the people that are there. And you just take arrows at a venture and shoot them and lo and behold, someone comes up to you and says, you don't know what you said this morning. You say, I guess I don't. What did I say? Well, if you knew, you never would

33:54 - 34:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that as a pastor knows his people more, he becomes aware of their sensitive issues and 'raw nerves,' increasing the temptation to compromise truth. Without growing…

Martin quotes A.W. Tozer, who criticized 'soft-handed reverends' trying to please everyone, warning that such man-pleasing compromises conscience and incurs God's frown, illustrating the danger of seeking universal acceptance.

day of your retirement. But you'll have standing over you this text, woe unto you, let it be when all men speak well of you. I remember, because I've heard the words probably a dozen or more times now, the late Dr. Tozer saying at a large convention of evangelicals who were desperately longing at that time in the early 60s to be considered acceptable and respectable and all the rest. The whole so-called new evangelical movement was just really flourishing

35:27 - 36:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that as a pastor knows his people more, he becomes aware of their sensitive issues and 'raw nerves,' increasing the temptation to compromise truth. Without growing…

Tozer's analogy of trying to inhale all the time without exhaling (being only 'positive') is used to illustrate the necessity of both affirming and denying, building up and tearing down, in ministry.

God. They said, people tell me, Tozer, you're too negative, too negative. You've got to go positive. He said, well, being positive would be like trying to inhale all the time without exhaling. You've got to inhale oxygen and exhale the poison. So the man that just

36:45 - 37:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Wicked flees when no man pursues, but the righteous is bold as a lion.

The proverb of the wicked fleeing when no man pursues and the righteous being bold as a lion is used to illustrate how a guilty conscience makes one fearful, while a clear conscience grants courage and fearlessness.

For this one voice, et cetera. Paul stood there knowing that he had a conscience that was blameless before God and before men, that he had not acted illegally, he had not acted with duplicity, and in walking with a blameless conscience before God, he could stand in any context, and he was marked by the grace of holy boldness. Perhaps these are New Testament examples of Proverbs 28.1. Great text.

51:00 - 51:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Immediately bring any deviation from God's word, secret lust, unmortified ambition, or sin to the cross of Christ for cleansing and purging, and make things right with others if defiled.

Martin shares his experience seeing a lion in the Kruger Reserve to emphasize the awe-inspiring boldness of a lion, drawing a parallel to the righteous man's boldness.

I've seen a lion in the wild, as I'm sure our brother has, in some of the game reserves there in South Africa. I went over to the Kruger Reserve, and it's an awesome thing. It's one thing to see them in pictures. It's another thing to see a real live leopard sitting up in a tree 40, 50 feet.

52:17 - 52:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Make sure there are no unsettled issues with God or man before going into the pulpit each Lord's Day, as this is essential to avoid apostasy.

The phrase 'eat crow' is used to illustrate the humility and discomfort required to confess sins and maintain a good conscience, even when others don't recognize them as sins.

That's the price you'll pay. It means you'll have to confess sins that other people don't even regard as sins. You'll have to go eat crow until you'll feel that your throat is aligned with crow feathers to keep a good conscience. Because every time you yield to the first pressures of conscience, it becomes more sensitive.

55:25 - 55:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Make sure there are no unsettled issues with God or man before going into the pulpit each Lord's Day, as this is essential to avoid apostasy.

The gradual process of a heart becoming harder or softer is compared to David's journey from a smitten conscience over cutting Saul's garment to his later sin with Bathsheba, illustrating how small compromises can lead to greater sin and loss of boldness.

So the level of its sensitivity increases just as the level of hardness increases each time you go into the pulpit. Each time you defy those first prickings of conscience under the pressure of God's law and God's spirit. Just as a hard heart comes in perceptibly and by degrees, so does a soft heart. Look at David.

55:47 - 56:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Keep good models of deliverance from the fear of men before you by reading scriptures, good biographies, and listening to living preachers who manifest this grace.

The story of Samuel Davies rebuking King George III during a sermon is presented as a powerful model of holy boldness, demonstrating a preacher's fearlessness before earthly authority when speaking for God.

Samuel Davies has set forth as an example of this, and this is what Gardner Spring writes. That distinguished American preacher, Samuel Davies, then president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, went on a visit to England in behalf of the college, was invited to preach before King George III. His youthful queen was sitting at his side, and so enchanted were they by the preacher's eloquence that the king expressed his admiration in no measured terms, and so audibly and rudely as to draw the attention of the audience and to interrupt the service. The preacher made a sudden, s...

62:43 - 63:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses common objections: that boldness makes preachers hard or insensitive, refuting this by citing Christ and Paul's examples of both boldness and compassion, and…

Jesus' imagery of a millstone around the neck and drowning is used to illustrate that seemingly 'harsh' words from Christ are, in fact, the kindest warnings to prevent a worse fate, challenging the notion that faithful preaching must always sound 'gentle'.

It were better that the millstone turned by a donkey be hanged around his neck and he be drowned in the sea. And he uses a present about hanging the millstone in a perfect for being drowned in the sea so that we would get the picture. There he is. See him.

80:58 - 81:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Accept that biblical preaching will alienate some people, and if your preaching doesn't, it isn't biblical.

Jesus' imagery of hell as a place where the worm dies not and the fire is never quenched is used to illustrate that vivid, unpleasant truth is a loving warning to avoid destruction, even if it sounds 'caustic'.

Well, that doesn't sound very gentle. No, it doesn't. But it's the kindest thing he could say to get the message across. And when he said to be cast into the fire where their worm dies not and the fire is never quenched, that wasn't pleasant imagery.

81:22 - 81:37 Read in full sermon