Perseverance; Sobriety/Watchfulness; Holiness

Driving home: I like to think of motives as the hidden, silent, but powerful engine of the soul. What your motives are, you will be.

Martin describes motives as 'the hidden, silent, but powerful engine of the soul' to convey their profound influence on a person's actions and character.

For when we take up our Bibles, we find again and again that the truth of the Lord's return is not only connected to the consolations which the people of God need in the midst of affliction, suffering, and the reality of death, but that again and again there are motivations to various strands of Christian duty and responsibility that arise directly out of the doctrine of the Lord's return in glory and power at the end of the age. Now, a motive is defined in our dictionaries as some drive, impulse, or intention that causes a person to do something or to act. A motive is some drive, some impulse...

7:13 - 8:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Be determined that when Jesus comes, He shall find us clinging to Him in persevering faith.

Saving faith is illustrated as 'the laying hold of Christ in a death grip,' emphasizing its desperate, tenacious, and all-encompassing nature as the only hope for salvation.

And it is present, persevering faith that is the validation of the legitimacy of perseverance of the past. And the scriptures tell us that all who truly believe into Christ will manifest the genuineness of that faith by continuing to cling to Christ in the death grip of saving faith. For that's what saving faith is. It is being brought to the place where I am persuaded from the scriptures that my condition as a sinner is such that apart from death and death I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved and I will be saved an...

11:02 - 12:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Take heed, watch and pray, for you know not when the time is of the Lord's return.

The concept of watching is compared to a military sentinel on duty through the night, pupils dilated, constantly peering for the slightest sign of danger, to illustrate the concentrated exertion of mind and being required for spiritual watchfulness.

you do not know when the time is. It is as when a man sojourning in another country, having left his house, given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. Watch, therefore, for you know not when the Lord of the house comes, whether it evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning, lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch. And you see how that emphasis is so concentrated in these few verses. Our Lord says that the certainty of his return, in a context of the indefinite time of his retu...

27:44 - 28:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Have your spiritual loins girded about and your lamps burning, being in a state of readiness for the Lord's return.

The Middle Eastern custom of girding loose robes with a sash to move quickly is used to illustrate the spiritual readiness and preparedness believers should have for Christ's return.

The Lord again, speaking to His disciples, says, Let your loins be girded about. A Middle Eastern in those days, when he was to get someplace in a hurry, he would take his loose, flowing robe and he would bring it up and tie it with a sash at his waist so he didn't go stumbling over his own skirt. Now the Lord says, You must have your loins, your spiritual loins girded. Be in a state of readiness.

29:54 - 30:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

Sleeping is used as an analogy for being 'out of touch with the real world,' dreaming of unreality, to illustrate how spiritual slumber disconnects believers from vital spiritual realities.

We are to awake out of sleep. There is, a slumber into which the child of God can drift and the call comes, awake from your sleep. When we're sleeping, we're out of touch with the real world. We can dream that we're millionaires.

34:04 - 34:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Live as sons of the light and sons of the day; do not sleep as do the rest, but watch and be sober.

The state of being sober (clear-headed, functional) versus drunken (ignorant of reality, unable to function) is used to illustrate the spiritual state believers should maintain, avoiding the 'alcohol of worldliness' that dulls spiritual senses.

When a man is sober, what is the characteristic of that man? Well, he doesn't have an accumulation of alcohol pressing in on his brain cells and making him to some degree ignorant and ignorant of the reality around him or unable to function with all of his faculties in relating to that reality. He says, let's not be drunk. Let's not allow ourselves to get into any frame of mind where the accumulative influence of the alcohol of worldliness, of preoccupation with ourselves, our jobs, our reputation, whatever else it is that takes us out of touch with the great realities of the soul, of the comi...

38:22 - 39:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself if the Lord would find you watchful and wakeful, in touch with reality, and engaging in what you ought to be doing as a child of God.

Modern society's obsession with continuous sounds, sights, and information (e.g., handheld gimmicks, information highway) is described as a 'narcotic that dulls the senses,' illustrating the grave danger of spiritual slumber for believers.

The grave danger for some of you is not that you're going to go out into a lifestyle in which you throw over all of the boundaries of decency and morality, but to just allow yourself to stagger into hell, having succumbed to the grave dangers of a society addicted to sounds and sights that put you to sleep.

40:30 - 40:59 Read in full sermon

The point: As children of obedience, do not fashion yourselves according to your former lusts, but be holy in all manner of living, because God is holy.

A Christian preparing for holiness is likened to someone tying up loose garments, splashing cold water on their face, and drinking strong coffee, symbolizing being alert, ready, and focused for the pursuit of holiness.

He ties up the loose flowing parts of his garment. He puts his sash around them. He splashes cold water on his face. He drinks a cup of strong Dominican coffee.

53:31 - 53:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not drink at the swine trough of Hollywood's garbage, or let the world impinge upon your soul with unclean reading material or images of violence and lechery.

Engaging with unholy media (Hollywood's garbage, images of violence and lechery) is described as 'drinking at the swine trough,' illustrating the incongruity of such behavior for those marked for glory.

What in the world am I doing? Drinking at the swine trough of Hollywood's garbage. What in the world am I doing? Letting the world impinge upon my soul in reading material that duty doesn't...

55:31 - 55:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray, 'Lord, make me as holy as it's possible for a redeemed sinner to be made holy in this life.'

Martin quotes Robert Murray McShane's prayer, 'Lord, make me as holy as it's possible for a redeemed sinner to be made holy in this life,' to set a high standard for the pursuit of holiness.

ourselves according to our former lusts in the time of our ignorance. But we'll pray with Robert Murray McShane. He just said that he prayed, Lord, make me as holy as it's possible for a redeemed sinner to be made holy in this life. Where would you set the standard beneath that?

56:20 - 56:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Desire to be found by the Lord at His coming doing what it was your duty to do, living all of life before His face.

Martin shares his personal Monday routine of paying bills, cleaning his closet, and then relaxing with newspapers and classical music, to illustrate that living in readiness for Christ's return means faithfully performing all duties, both spiritual and mundane, before God's face.

I have a pen and I write out checks. I don't sit there and do this electronic stuff. I mean, I do it the real way. I write out the checks.

60:06 - 60:14 Read in full sermon