Way of Righteous, Way of Ungodly

The point: Stop measuring yourself by isolated good deeds — examine the trodden pattern of your life. That, biblically, is your 'way.'

A man crosses a wooded area once and you see no path; but morning and night for weeks and months and you suddenly see a 'way' worn through the woods. So a 'way' in Hebrew is a trodden, habitual path.

The Hebrew word, its root concept, is that of to tread. It's the idea of a trodden path. You see, a path over which a man goes again and again, over which many people go, becomes a way. If someone just goes through a certain part of a wooded area one time, there is no way through the woods.

8:49 - 9:09 Read in full sermon

Martin pictures the modern attempt: 13 different categories — a few real saints over here, a few real bad people there, and lots of little ways in between. God has only two.

A few way over here in the way of the righteous, then a few real bad people way over here in the way of ungodliness, and all kinds of little ways in between. God only has two ways. There they are. Two ways.

19:00 - 19:13 Read in full sermon

God speaks to the wicked in Psalm 50: 'These things thou hast done and I kept silence — thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself' — and warns 'I will set them in order before thine eyes.'

Thou hast given thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother. Thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence.

22:37 - 22:49 Read in full sermon

Martin asks: does it bring comfort just to know that God is aware of your trouble? No — what comforts is the conviction that He knows it with special, attentive concern.

for thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my soul in adversities Now does it bring any comfort in adversity just the knowledge that God is aware of my adversity I don't know about you, but that doesn't bring any comfort to me. Just like a man might be aware, as the people were who passed that poor, beaten-up, half-dead Samaritan. They knew his need. They looked at it, fully aware of it, and walked by on the other side.

24:13 - 24:46 Read in full sermon

The point: When you taste blessedness, refuse to take credit — the only reason your way is blessed is that the Lord knows your way with sovereign favor.

Martin reflects on his own conversion: how could a man who by Romans 8:7 hated God's law come to love it and preach it? Only one answer: the Lord knew his way.

There's only one reason. Only one answer. That God was pleased in grace and mercy to work in me, to put me into that way. And now why have I been kept in it?

30:01 - 30:13 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have not repented and fled to Christ, recognize the absurdity of staying in a way you yourself believe will harm you.

Peter says the world that then was 'perished' under the flood — not annihilated, but submerged in judgment. So perishing means immersed in the judgment of God, not ceasing to exist.

Speaking of the deluge of the flood in which the world is said to have perished. Now, how did the world perish under the flood? Was it brought to a state of annihilation? No.

36:15 - 36:26 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are God's child, look back over this past week and ask: have I been refusing ungodly counsel and meditating in God's law? Let fresh gratitude and resolve rise.

Martin describes a contemporary educator with two doctorates who runs a school where students need attend no class, share toilets and showers across sexes — an educated man's vision of blessedness in 'complete freedom.' The world has many such ways; God has two.

that you must never do anything that in any way infringes on the liberty of another. You don't have to go to classes. The boys and girls use the same toilet facilities, swim in the same pools in the nude. Complete freedom.

46:11 - 46:28 Read in full sermon