Plurality of Elders: Preventive Counsels

Driving home: the older I get, the more I'm persuaded that next to a faithful Savior and to a faithful wife, the greatest gifts God can give us in this life are trusted, faithful friends.

Martin contrasts the replaceability of material possessions (books, clothes, house) with the irreplaceable value of tried and tested friendships, especially in the face of indwelling sin and the devil's disruptions, to emphasize the preciousness of spiritual camaraderie.

Well, I certainly reciprocate those thoughts that Pastor Mitch has shared with you. As we said at the table last night, the older I get, the more I'm persuaded that next to a faithful Savior and to a faithful wife, the greatest gifts God can give us in this life are trusted, faithful friends. My house could burn down. I'd lose all my books, all my clothes, my shoes, my hats.

0:03 - 0:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin recounts the calling of Ashiel Blaze as a co-elder in 1973, recognizing this as a new dimension of congregational life that would invite spiritual attack, prompting the…

He uses the analogy of prostate surgery as a preventive measure to illustrate the sermon's purpose: to provide 'preventive counsels' against spiritual diseases before they manifest.

You have corrected... ...in an operating room, as friends would say, an operating theater, and have your prostate dug...

4:06 - 4:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin recounts the calling of Ashiel Blaze as a co-elder in 1973, recognizing this as a new dimension of congregational life that would invite spiritual attack, prompting the…

The analogy of inoculation against a serious disease is used to further explain the sermon's aim to give a 'good dose of corrective medicine' to prevent spiritual ailments, even without current symptoms.

Now, go to the doctor's office, and you give him your bared arm, and he sticks a needle in, and he inoculates you against a disease that could be serious and perhaps even fatal. Well, I want to give you a good...

4:31 - 4:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the Bible teaches anyone dominated as a lifestyle, dominated by carnality, is not a Christian.

Martin uses the common scenario of men arguing over politics in a barbershop to illustrate how people line up behind their 'man' (candidate), mirroring the carnal divisions in Corinth.

will sit in the barbershop and have a rip-snorting argument over politics. Oh, here's my man. No, no, no, here's my man. Well, this is my man.

20:09 - 20:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the Bible teaches anyone dominated as a lifestyle, dominated by carnality, is not a Christian.

He extends the previous example to sports, where people passionately debate and line up behind their favorite athletes (Michael Jordan, LeBron James), demonstrating the same carnal tendency to divide over human figures.

You'll find people doing this over sports. Oh, this guy, he is the top man. He can't hold a candle to Michael Jordan, LeBron James. He can't hold a candle.

20:20 - 20:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that having preferences for different ministry styles is not sinful, but using those preferences to create divisions is carnal and sinful.

Martin uses the example of preferring one pastor's teaching style over another's due to mental furniture or emotional comfort to illustrate a non-sinful difference in taste, contrasting it with sinful carnality.

Well, you know, the way we gather in my mental furniture, and the psychology, my emotional life, and the rest, I really prefer the way Pastor Mitch teaches. I really prefer the way...

21:54 - 22:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that having preferences for different ministry styles is not sinful, but using those preferences to create divisions is carnal and sinful.

He uses preferences for colors (blue) or home decor (window coverings) as simple, morally neutral examples of 'distant taste' to further distinguish between personal preference and sinful division.

Any more than... Some of you like the...

22:14 - 22:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember who and what you are as a church: not a religious club, but God's building and field, meant to bear fruit that validates the gospel.

Martin shares an anecdote from Trinity Baptist Church where visitors from egalitarian or matriarchal societies observed the church's order, seeing men take up their headship and leadership, demonstrating the gospel's transformative power in family life.

We should be able to say come to our church and see. See husbands. Years I'm so thankful I witnessed this at Trinity. People would come in.

42:25 - 42:43 Read in full sermon