No Area of Passivity 1 of 4

The point: Let us take care that our own personal religion is real, genuine, and true.

Martin quotes Bishop Ryle's 'Holiness' to summarize the principle of 'no release from tension and conflict,' emphasizing the unceasing nature of spiritual warfare against sin, the world, and the devil.

In his chapter on the fight in his classic book entitled Holiness, which is a collection of essays really on living the Christian life, he speaks of this fight as of perpetual necessity. It admits of no breathing time, no armistice, no truce. On weekdays as well as on Sundays, in private as well as in public, at home by the family fireside as well as abroad, in little things like the management of the tongue and temper, as well as in great ones like the government of kingdoms, the Christian's warfare must unceasingly go on. The foe we have to do with keeps no holidays. He doesn't take off on t...

4:24 - 5:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: As Warfield quotes him, as you definitely turned your back to the world and accepted pardon through Christ, so now, with equal definiteness, give yourself to be the Lord's, holy the Lord's, forever the Lord's, to accept …

Martin quotes Mr. Smith to illustrate the imbalanced doctrine of the indwelling Christ, where Christ is expected to 'live your lives for you,' replacing personal effort.

Hannah Whitehall Smith's book, The Christian Secret of a Happy Life, is known to some of you, I'm sure. It has gone through numerous editions. Well, she and her husband were great expounders of this imbalanced doctrine of the indwelling Christ. Listen to some of the terminology that is used by Mr. Smith in one of the lectures he gave over in England in 1874 on the promotion of scriptural holiness. I quote him now, as Warfield quotes him, as you definitely turned your back to the world and accepted pardon through Christ, so now, with equal definiteness, give yourself to be the Lord's, holy the ...

23:55 - 24:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: As Warfield quotes him, as you definitely turned your back to the world and accepted pardon through Christ, so now, with equal definiteness, give yourself to be the Lord's, holy the Lord's, forever the Lord's, to accept …

Martin quotes Mrs. Smith, who extends the imbalanced doctrine to Christ doing 'our daily work for us also,' further emphasizing passivity in Christian living.

I go on and quote now from his wife, Mrs. Smith, and she waxes even more eloquent in this area. The same grace that saved us must keep us. And we agree.

25:21 - 25:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Any victory over the power of sin whatsoever in your life that you have to get by working for it is counterfeit. Any victory you have to get by trying for it is counterfeit.

Martin quotes Charles Trumbull, who states that any victory over sin achieved by 'working for it' or 'trying for it' is counterfeit, promoting a passive approach to holiness.

I had assignments when I was in Bible college to read some of his writings. Now listen to Charles Trumbull on this imbalanced doctrine of the indwelling Christ. In his tract called Real and Counterfeit Victory, Trumbull says, quote, Any victory over the power of sin whatsoever in your life that you have to get by working for it is counterfeit. Any victory you have to get by trying for it is counterfeit.

26:24 - 26:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Any victory over the power of sin whatsoever in your life that you have to get by working for it is counterfeit. Any victory you have to get by trying for it is counterfeit.

Martin quotes Trumbull's extreme view that Christ literally replaces our self and fills our whole being, not as a figure of speech, but as literally as clothes fill a body.

The simple fact is that whenever a life that trusts Christ as Savior is completely surrendered to Christ as Master, Christ is then ready to take complete control of that life and at once to fill it with Himself. When we surrender and trust completely we die to self and Christ can and does literally replace our self with Himself. Thus it is no longer we that live but Christ lives in us in His person. Literally fills our whole being in actual personal presence.

27:13 - 27:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Any victory over the power of sin whatsoever in your life that you have to get by working for it is counterfeit. Any victory you have to get by trying for it is counterfeit.

Martin uses the analogy of a jacket as an empty piece of cloth that gains motion and shape only when a person fills it, to explain Trumbull's teaching that Christ literally fills our humanity.

And He does this not as a figure of speech but as literally as we fill our clothes with ourselves. Now what is that jacket right now? It's an empty piece of some cloth sewed together so as to conform to my body. It has no faculties of its own.

27:58 - 28:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies the first error exposed by the principle: an imbalanced doctrine of the indwelling Christ. He affirms the biblical truth of Christ's indwelling but critiques…

Martin quotes Warfield's summary of A.B. Simpson's teaching, which takes the indwelling Christ doctrine to the extreme of Christ's spirit, mind, and even body becoming literally ours, leading to perfect bodily wholeness.

Let me give you one more quote because this notion is carried to one of its most frightening extremes in the teaching of A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. And in his tract, well-known tract, I read it more than once when I was in the Alliance, called Himself.

28:50 - 29:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin shares a personal anecdote about the practical agony and potential for cynicism or mental distress caused by taking the 'Christ lives my life for me' doctrine seriously…

Martin shares a personal story of agonizing over whether wanting a glass of milk was the indwelling Christ's desire or his own sin, illustrating the practical bondage and confusion caused by the imbalanced doctrine.

Any question on that point? Yes, Louise? Yeah, exactly. And some of us who took this teaching seriously, I can remember, I've told some of you this in personal counseling, I can remember standing in front of the refrigerator at night before I'd go to bed in terrible agony.

33:57 - 34:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the second error: unwarranted deductions from biblical analogies. He uses Hannah Smith's interpretation of the 'growth' analogy (tree/vine) and the 'potter and…

Martin quotes Hannah Smith's prescription for Christian growth: 'give up all your efforts after growing and simply let yourselves grow,' promoting a passive approach to spiritual development.

The whole idea that the Christian is like a tree or like a branch in the vine. This is what she says. Let me entreat of you then to give up all your efforts after growing and simply let yourselves grow. End quote.

38:54 - 39:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the second error: unwarranted deductions from biblical analogies. He uses Hannah Smith's interpretation of the 'growth' analogy (tree/vine) and the 'potter and…

Martin uses Hannah Smith's analogy of lilies and live oaks growing without effort due to an inward life principle, to illustrate the teaching of 'growth without effort' in the Christian life.

This is her fundamental prescription for the Christian life. Quote, a growth without effort. The lilies, says Mrs. Smith, planted in good soil do not strive to grow.

39:15 - 39:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the second error: unwarranted deductions from biblical analogies. He uses Hannah Smith's interpretation of the 'growth' analogy (tree/vine) and the 'potter and…

Martin recalls speakers using the analogy of an apple tree effortlessly bearing fruit to teach that Christians should be fruitful without effort by simply yielding to the Holy Spirit.

The fundamental meaning is that our only work is to get into Christ. He does the rest. And I can remember in conferences when I was in a very moldable, teachable age and hungry and thirsty for reality, I remember speakers standing up and saying, look at the tree out there. Look at the apple tree.

40:01 - 40:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the second error: unwarranted deductions from biblical analogies. He uses Hannah Smith's interpretation of the 'growth' analogy (tree/vine) and the 'potter and…

Martin uses the ridiculous analogy of a runner waiting for an impulse to get off the blocks and be carried along, to expose the absurdity of applying a passive 'tree' analogy to all aspects of the Christian life, which is also likened to running a race.

We are like a tree in some aspects of the Christian life. But if you build a whole theology on that likeness, you teach downright heresy and serious error because the Bible has other analogies for the Christian life, calls it running a race. So the next time we see a runner, he's just out there saying, runners to your mark, get set, go. And he says, I'm just waiting.

41:01 - 41:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In a very real sense according to this kind of teaching the only effort you and I must put forth is the effort to come to the place where we have no effort. Put forth all of your effort to get to the place where you make…

Martin quotes Hannah Smith's use of the potter and clay analogy, where the clay is to 'abide there passively,' to illustrate the teaching of human passivity in God's molding process.

Let me quote this part. Hannah Smith says, The part of the clay is simply to be put into the potter's hands and to abide there passively. Put yourselves therefore into God's hands as the clay in the hands of the potter and trust him. But do not take yourselves back.

42:43 - 43:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In a very real sense according to this kind of teaching the only effort you and I must put forth is the effort to come to the place where we have no effort. Put forth all of your effort to get to the place where you make…

Martin quotes Warfield's perceptive comment on Smith's clay analogy: 'Very strange clay this, passive in the potter's hand to which the potter can do nothing unless the clay lets him,' highlighting the logical inconsistency of the passive approach.

Having given yourselves to him, you must abide in him. You must stay there. You must let him mold and fashion you. Warfield very perceptively comments, Very strange clay this, passive in the potter's hand to which the potter can do nothing unless the clay lets him.

43:04 - 43:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I ask in the first place whether it is wise to speak of faith as the one thing needful. The only thing required as many seem to do nowadays in handling the doctrine of sanctification.

Martin quotes Bishop Ryle's warning against speaking of faith as 'the one thing needful' in sanctification, and against proclaiming holiness 'by faith only and not at all by personal exertion,' challenging the inaccurate doctrine.

And Ryle in his day lived at a time when this kind of teaching was just being first popularized and he sounded a warning note in the introduction to this series of essays entitled Holiness. And he says in his first proposition as to why he's writing this series of essays. I ask in the first place whether it is wise to speak of faith as the one thing needful. The only thing required as many seem to do nowadays in handling the doctrine of sanctification.

47:26 - 48:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Just try to think of Scriptures in which we have commands addressed to all of our faculties as redeemed men and women. Scriptures in which the entirety of the redeemed humanity is addressed in the Word of God. And then s…

Martin uses the analogy of preaching, which requires the conscious engagement of all a man's faculties, to illustrate the absurdity of a passive approach to living the Christian life.

Not the exclusive but the dominant images. So try to think of specific commands addressed to our entire humanity where we are called upon to do something with our minds, with our hands, with our eyes, with our feet, with our affections, with our wills. Think of those texts and then think of the text which set forth the dominant images and analogies of the Christian life and that way God willing we will see the biblical roots of this principle that there is no negation nor suspension of any of the faculties of our redeemed humanity in living the Christian life. And I hope for some of us that th...

50:35 - 51:52 Read in full sermon