89b) Spiritual and Mental Gifts #2

Driving home: Peter says this is what the ignorant and the unstable do with regard to the scriptures. The ignorant and the unsteadfast rest. They put upon the torture rack and take out of their divine intended contours, as they are.

Peter's verb 'rest or twist' (torture) is likened to a man on a torture rack, whose basic human contours are maintained but stretched out of shape. This illustrates how the ignorant and unstable distort Scripture, taking it out of its divinely intended contours.

We read in 2 Peter 3 and verse 16, of those who rest or twist, literally torture, the scriptures to their own destruction. And that verb would be the verb you would use to describe what a man did to another human being when he put him on a torture rack and he maintained the basic contours of human being, but he was tortured, he was stretched out of his native shape, shoulders dislocated, hips dislocated. And Peter says this is what the ignorant and the unstable do with regard to the scriptures. The ignorant and the unsteadfast rest. They put upon the torture rack and take out of their divine i...

1:32 - 2:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section explains that a proper grasp of Scripture's meaning necessitates understanding various theological disciplines: biblical theology (progress of revelation), systematic…

Martin uses the example of taking an Old Covenant promise like 'there shall be no miscarrying womb' and misapplying it to New Covenant believers, leading to false condemnation or unbelief. This illustrates a failure in biblical theology.

Why we do not take a passage out of Deuteronomy and lift it up and apply it one to one to the people of God in the new covenant without any qualification, without any sensitivity to the differences that exist between the old covenant community and the new covenant community. Why we do not take promises, there shall be no miscarrying womb, and then hold that out to new covenant believers and say, all the promises of God are yes in Christ. Therefore, any of you women who have a miscarrying womb are living in unbelief or under the curse of God. Some other nonsense.

5:00 - 5:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section explains that a proper grasp of Scripture's meaning necessitates understanding various theological disciplines: biblical theology (progress of revelation), systematic…

Taking sections out of the book of Acts and saying, 'since God did it then, and He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, can He not do it now?' and then whipping up God's people into a frenzy. This illustrates a failure to appreciate the progress of revelatory data and biblical theology.

You see, it's a failure to be sensitive to biblical theology, distinctions between the Mosaic economy and the gospel age, the distinction between the transition out of the old covenant age into the new covenant age, taking sections out of the book of Acts, and saying, since God did it then, and He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, can He not do it now? And then whipping up God's people into a frenzy. Because there's no appreciation that there is a progress in the revelatory data, that progress that we seek to understand within the discipline of biblical theology. Systematic theology, t...

5:37 - 6:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section explains that a proper grasp of Scripture's meaning necessitates understanding various theological disciplines: biblical theology (progress of revelation), systematic…

Martin quotes Thomas Boston's language of 'human nature in its fourfold state' (original, fallen, regenerate but imperfect, glorified) as an example of systematic theology's scope.

Man in his fallen state? Man in his regenerate but imperfect state? Man in his glorified state? To use Thomas Boston's language, human nature in its fourfold state.

6:36 - 6:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: a man of weak and childish mind though he were as pious as Gabriel can never make an able minister and he ought never to be invested with the office at all

Martin quotes Samuel Miller extensively, who argues that 'good sense, of native discernment and discretion' is essential for a minister, comparing it to the necessity of good sense for a physician, lawyer, or ambassador. This underscores the importance of practical judgment.

in other words of a sound respectable natural understanding when our Lord was about to send forth his first ministers he said to them be wise as serpents as well as harmless as doves and truly there is no employment under heaven in which wisdom practical wisdom is so important or rather so imperiously and indispensably demanded as in the ministry of reconciliation a man of weak and childish mind though he were as pious as Gabriel can never make an able minister and he ought never to be invested with the office at all for with respect to a large portion of its duties he is utterly unqualified t...

19:16 - 20:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: a man of weak and childish mind though he were as pious as Gabriel can never make an able minister and he ought never to be invested with the office at all

Miller's analogy of a doctor who can recite medical textbooks but lacks good sense is used to illustrate that mere knowledge is insufficient without practical judgment, especially in ministry.

in other words of a sound respectable natural understanding when our Lord was about to send forth his first ministers he said to them be wise as serpents as well as harmless as doves and truly there is no employment under heaven in which wisdom practical wisdom is so important or rather so imperiously and indispensably demanded as in the ministry of reconciliation a man of weak and childish mind though he were as pious as Gabriel can never make an able minister and he ought never to be invested with the office at all for with respect to a large portion of its duties he is utterly unqualified t...

19:16 - 20:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: there are men in the ministry men godly men earnest men knowledgeable men learned men and perhaps even effective publishers but they make a mess wherever they go as pastors because they lack this quality of a mind furnis…

Martin describes men who 'make a mountain out of a mole hill quicker than a Komatsu their biggest shoveling hole to move earth' and conversely, fail to see a mountain of a problem. This vividly illustrates a lack of sound practical judgment.

deportment and all that is judicious seasonable and calculated to edify in public ministry the methods to be employed for winning souls there are so many and various etc and he goes on to underscore what I have called here sound practical judgment now how do you evaluate that well I'm not prepared to say ten tests to see if a man has sound practical judgment but I tell you I keep my eyes open and it's one of those things you can better tell where it ain't than describe it where it is and there are men in the ministry men godly men earnest men knowledgeable men learned men and perhaps even effe...

22:16 - 23:45 Read in full sermon