After the Sermon Part 1

Driving home: That the very thing he commands us to do or to be, he promises that he will do or make true of us, of us, and in us.

Martin uses the analogy of God's commands and promises not being a 'hopeless contradiction' but a 'marvelous synthesis,' where commands reveal our duty and promises provide incentive and confidence for our efforts, particularly in prayer.

Here the thing God commands his people to do, he says he will do. Now is this a hopeless contradiction? Or is it another of those expressions of the marvelous synthesis of God's revelation? That the very thing he commands us to do or to be, he promises that he will do or make true of us, of us, and in us.

6:57 - 7:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Lay up and store the word in your heart so that it exerts pressure on your motives, moral decisions, ethical perspectives, judgment, conscience, will, and emotions.

He uses the example of a young man's peculiar temptations (independence, selfishness, ambition, lust, naivety of youth) to highlight the need for the word to cleanse his way, making the application of Psalm 119:9 more concrete.

Back up to verse 9. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. If a man, young or old, but a young man with his peculiar temptations, the peculiar pressures upon him, to a life of independence, to a life of selfishness, of ambition, of covetousness, of lust, all the peculiar temptations when the potential for sin is fueled by the energy and strength and many times the naivety of youth.

14:36 - 15:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One of the old writers has said, and I've quoted it several times over the years from this pulpit, that in conversion the greatest and most difficult work of God is winning the heart to him. That's the great work of conv…

Martin quotes an 'old writer' who states that the greatest work of God in conversion is winning the heart, and in the Christian life, it is keeping the heart with God, underscoring the centrality of the heart in spiritual life.

And that's what I'm seeking to set before you when I say that in supplicating God we must not only cry to him that he would write his word upon our hearts, but that he would incline our hearts to believe and obey the word that he himself has objectively revealed in Scripture. One of the old writers has said, and I've quoted it several times over the years from this pulpit, that in conversion the greatest and most difficult work of God is winning the heart to him. That's the great work of conversion,

18:20 - 19:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You have no desire that the word of God be written upon your heart, that there be an internal delight in the ways of God, in the will of God, in supremely, in the salvation of God in Christ and in the Savior who is the g…

He uses the analogy of an unconverted person desiring to be plunged into a 'boiling vat of oil' as much as they desire God's word to take possession of their heart, vividly illustrating their natural aversion to God's will.

is for the precepts and the promises and the ways of God revealed in this word, the Bible, to take possession of your heart so that there is no facet of your life that is not brought through the filter of God's word. That's as far from your desires as it is that you would here and now be plunged into a boiling vat of oil. You have no desire that the word of God be written upon your heart, that there be an internal delight in the ways of God, in the will of God, in supremely,

20:07 - 20:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What a tragic thing to sit under the preaching of the word that has no more effect upon you than someone trying to use his fingernail to etch words in granite.

Martin compares the word's effect on an unconverted heart to 'someone trying to use his fingernail to etch words in granite,' emphasizing the hardness and unresponsiveness of the stony heart.

By nature a stony heart. It's that heart that is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be. What a tragic thing to sit under the preaching of the word that has no more effect upon you than someone trying to use his fingernail to etch words in granite.

21:35 - 22:04 Read in full sermon