How to Retain Wisdom

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'law' as God's broad teaching and doctrine, then explores three kinds of forgetfulness: creaturely, sinful (physical deterioration and spiritual disinclination)…

An imaginative scenario of Adam forgetting where he put his spade in the Garden of Eden, used to introduce the concept of 'creaturely forgetfulness' before the Fall.

me start with the one I'm not too sure about. I believe there may be a forgetfulness common to us as creatures. In other words, when Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, maybe your mind never works this way, but I've asked myself this question. Would he have ever had to go to Eve and say, Eve, where in the world did I put my spade that I was out there working the garden with yesterday?

12:43 - 13:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines 'law' as God's broad teaching and doctrine, then explores three kinds of forgetfulness: creaturely, sinful (physical deterioration and spiritual disinclination)…

A story of a boy who deliberately avoids looking at his watch to 'forget' his mother's command to be home by five, illustrating willful, rebellious forgetfulness against known authority.

hold down the truth in unrighteousness. It's like a little boy who's going out to go fishing, and his mother says, now, Johnny, I want you to remember, I want you home by five o'clock. You understand? Yes, ma'am. You got your watch on? So he looks at his little Mickey Mouse watch. He says,

17:34 - 17:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Because for the simple reason that whatever holds a man's mind is that which governs a man's life. What holds the mind molds the life.

A humorous analogy about the connection between physical discipline and memory, used to emphasize how consequences can aid in remembering commands.

my watch. What kind of forgetfulness was this? It was a forgetfulness rooted in a deliberate, calculated rebellion against known authority. We've said to our children when they've been guilty of that kind of forgetfulness, that God has, in a very wonderful way, put some mysterious connections between the nerve endings of your backside and the brain. And this will help you to remember the next time. And it's amazing.

19:24 - 19:56 Read in full sermon

The point: It is vital to not forget the doctrine and teaching of God, as it is the molding and governing influence in your life.

Compares the heart to Hanoi or Washington (political capitals) or a throne room in a monarchy, illustrating its central, governing role in a person's life.

The heart is the seat, the center of all the streams of your life experience. What Hanoi is to the policies of North Vietnam and what Washington is to the policies of the U.S., the heart is to your life.

27:27 - 27:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section focuses on the positive entreaty, defining 'heart' as the center of one's being and 'keep' as involving cordial affection, hearty attention, and cheerful obedience…

Compares keeping commandments to a lover cherishing the memory of the beloved, emphasizing cordial affection and retention beyond mere observation.

To keep the commandments of God is to involve, first of all, a cordial affection for those commandments. A love for them. A cherishing of them. As a lover, as the beloved, keeps the memory of the object of his or her love in his heart.

30:19 - 30:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine yourself: Have you been born of God? Has God done a work as deep as the center of your being, touching your heart?

Compares someone without spiritual delight to a person who eats out of duty due to a physical malady, illustrating the lack of genuine spiritual relish in an unconverted heart.

You're like a man who's lost his appetite because of some problem of physical malady and he simply eats out of duty and that's all it is. Day in and day out and week in and week out and he never knows a moment's delight. Now the child of God has periods when he feeds upon the Word simply out of a sense of duty. Attends the public and private means of grace simply out of duty and there's no delight.

37:48 - 38:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Attend faithfully upon the stated ministries of the Word of God within the visible church.

Examples of diligent lawyers and doctors who constantly read and study their fields, used to shame Christians who neglect consistent Bible reading for retaining God's Word.

and put us to shame. The lawyer whose worth is weighed in salt and who makes progress in whatever field of law he labors in, whether it's criminal law, whether it's some kind of industrial, relationships, that's the lawyer who is constantly doing what? He's reading his law books, going over all the possible cases, key situations in the past. He doesn't just read them when under pressure in the midst of a particular crisis of a personal dealing with client A in the month of February.

43:03 - 43:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Fuse the Word to the affections in fervent prayer, crying out for grace to delight in and obey God's commandments.

A hypothetical scenario where all Christians lose their Bibles for a year, suggesting it would immediately spur them to memorize Scripture, highlighting the necessity of memorization.

How are we going to know what they demand when we're in that situation, unless we've laid it up in the memory? I think perhaps the best thing that could ever happen to us is for some of these grounds and warrantable facts to be made that in six months' time, every Christian in Essex County was going to lose his Bible, not have one for a whole year. Some of us would start memorizing Scripture pretty quick, and all our excuses would go blowing right out the window, and we'd start retaining the words of God, wouldn't we? Oh, may God help us to see the necessity

46:06 - 46:50 Read in full sermon