Gracious Consolations

The point: Speak of the future, even tomorrow, with a disposition that recognizes we have no certain assurance of living to see it, acknowledging God's sovereignty.

Martin uses his personal plan for his day off to illustrate human inability to predict the future with certainty, contrasting it with God's absolute control and foreknowledge.

The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, November 11, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Those of you who frequent this place of worship, whether as a member or a friend, you know that at the conclusion of most of the ordinary services of the Lord's Day that I make my way to the back of this auditorium and stand by the glass doors on the right entrance or exit. It's an exit when you're moving that way. Now, suppose one of you coming out that door and greeting me were to ask me this morning,

0:01 - 0:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that God's prophetic announcements are primarily for the comfort and instruction of His people, not to satisfy curiosity about future details. He uses the example…

Martin uses the analogy of a flat screen to explain how Old Testament prophets saw future events, like Messiah's mercy and vengeance, as if flattened, without clear sequence or three-dimensional detail, leading to John the Baptist's confusion.

usher in the day of the vengeance of the Lord. The prophet sees them all as though they were plastered on a flat screen. That's why John the Baptist had trouble when he's in prison and the crowds are no longer flocking to Jesus. And he says, are you he who should come or do we look for another? Because he had the certainty of the coming of Messiah. Messiah who would bring mercy.

7:06 - 7:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Allow the certainty of Christ's return to impart gracious consolation to you as a Christian.

A mother comforting her four-year-old daughter whose pet hamster died illustrates the act of consoling, making someone less sad in the face of a dark providence.

To console is to comfort. It's to make someone less sad than they would otherwise be, generally in the light of what we would call a dark providence that has come upon them. This is what a mother does when she sits down with her four-year-old daughter who just discovered that her pet hamster died, and her world is shattered. She's not known life without her pet hamster, and now the hamster's dead.

15:10 - 15:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Allow the certainty of Christ's return to impart gracious consolation to you as a Christian.

Mariano Rivera's teammates consoling him after giving up a bloop single that cost the Yankees the World Series illustrates easing pain and disappointment.

And mommy takes her daughter on her knee and seeks to speak words, and with her very bodily touching and embracing, and reassuring, what is she doing? She is consoling her daughter. It's what the teammates of Mariano Rivera tried to do when he gave up that bloop single in the last of the night, and the proud Yankees went down in defeat. His teammates gathered around him, and they were seeking to do what?

15:38 - 16:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first category of consolation is for ordinary afflictions. Martin clarifies that being in Christ does not insulate believers from life's troubles, citing John 16:33 and Acts…

The idea of being 'cocooned' from life's afflictions is used to describe a false doctrine that some sincere but ill-taught preachers promote, which the Bible does not promise.

God nowhere says that that amazing work that He has done for us in the here and now automatically becomes a cocoon around us protecting us from the ordinary common afflictions of this life. The Bible nowhere promises that. Some, let me put the best motive, some sincere but ill-taught preachers seek to set forth a doctrine that if you are in Christ, you are insulated from the common afflictions of this life. No, that is not true.

19:00 - 19:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first category of consolation is for ordinary afflictions. Martin clarifies that being in Christ does not insulate believers from life's troubles, citing John 16:33 and Acts…

The Greek word 'flipsis' (tribulation) is explained using the metaphor of a milling mob, where bodies press in upon you, to convey the sense of pressured, frustrating, and threatening circumstances.

It's flipsis. And it speaks of pressures. The verb is the verb you would use to describe what happens in a milling mob in which bodies all around you are pressing in upon you. That's the verbal sense.

22:01 - 22:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Expounding Romans 5:1-5, Martin explains that justified believers have peace with God, access to grace, and a confident expectation of God's glory. This hope enables them to…

The process of biting or shaving a gold coin to prove its authenticity is used to illustrate how tribulations test and prove the 'approvedness' of a believer's faith.

afflictions do not budge us from Christ. We have a new level of what? Approvedness. We've been put to the test and shown to be the real thing. If you've got

34:31 - 34:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not spend all your life trying to look around the corner for negative providences and running in the other direction; live free as a bird, not carelessly, but with Christian hope.

Martin shares an anecdote about a preacher friend with a 'Hallelujah Anyhow' sign in his study, illustrating a robust, non-careless Christian response to life's providences rooted in good theology.

If you get hold of this it can be life transforming. You're not spending all of your life trying to look around the corner and see what might be a negative providence and running in the other direction. You live free as a bird. Not carelessly, not irresponsibly but like one of my preacher friends had a big sign hung on a filing cabinet in his study. The minute you came in

39:22 - 39:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not spend all your life trying to look around the corner for negative providences and running in the other direction; live free as a bird, not carelessly, but with Christian hope.

The analogy of fire proving gold is used to explain how trials test and reveal the genuineness of a believer's saving faith, rather than consuming it.

from heaven wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a little while if need be you have been put to grief in manifold trials that the proof of your faith the trials are intended to test and show the reality of your faith being more precious than gold that perishes though it is proved by fire may be found unto praise and glory and honor when at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Peter says you're in the midst of temptations trials a different word from the Flips family but he said in the midst of it you need to realize God is doing something what fire is to apparent gold

41:01 - 41:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and His peace will guard your hearts and minds.

The story of the three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace is used as a beautiful picture of God preserving His true children in affliction, where they lose only their 'ropes' (bondage) but not their essence.

your trials are to your apparent saving faith and when you put the gold into the fire it will show itself to be the real thing if it is if not it will appear for what it is fools gold or dross likewise we test faith God puts us into furnace and what does the fire do it simply shows the genuineness of that faith that faith is not extinguished by the fire it's not consumed by the fire it's fed and strengthened by the fire remember the three Hebrew boys get thrown into the fiery furnace bound the scripture says when they

41:45 - 42:29 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not in Christ, you face the common afflictions of life with nothing more than your own native powers to cope, and you are ripening for judgment.

Martin quotes a hymn about the Great Judgment Morning to vividly portray the final fate of the lost and the urgency of repentance, serving as a warning to unbelievers.

an itinerant ministry traveling around the country preaching often in small country churches I didn't know any better and I used to sing solos before I preached not always but sometimes and I was pondering closing the message this morning I used to sing I really could preach it the words are such that you can preach them in Psalm came to my own heart so forcefully and I want to quote them as my final word this morning the hymn writer the song writer composes what was his dream not that he literally dreamed but under the imagery of a dream

60:47 - 61:32 Read in full sermon