Christ as Our Prophet Part 3

In this part of the sermon: He then explores the spiritual basis of the question, arguing that only a heart touched by God's grace, justified and longing for holiness, will genuinely ask this question. He…

Martin describes a young man as a 'bundle of ambition, a bundle of dreams,' facing the 'tremendous appeal of material pleasure' and the 'glitter of success,' contrasting him with an older man who has found these things unsatisfying. This illustrates the unique pressures on youth.

For a young man has not had that maturing which comes from experience. He has not had that mellowing which comes with the years. His passions, physical passions are at their peak and he may not yet know God's legitimate expression of those desires and capacities in the realm of marriage. As a young man, he's a bundle of ambition,

8:40 - 9:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He then explores the spiritual basis of the question, arguing that only a heart touched by God's grace, justified and longing for holiness, will genuinely ask this question. He…

He uses the example of women embracing their 'womanliness' and 'God-given place' in subjection and the home to illustrate how obedience to God's Word leads to true beauty and fulfillment, rather than cramping one's style.

He isn't like the man who's 60 and has everything and goes home to his penthouse and says, to some swanky place in New York and sits down and drinks himself to sleep because he's found that money and material things bring no satisfaction. The young man hasn't found that by experience yet. And out there there's all the glitter of success, of station, of position, of popularity, prestige, and all of those temptations converge upon a young man in a peculiar way upon a young man.

9:15 - 9:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin critiques several common, yet unbiblical, answers to the question of how to cleanse one's way, including positionalism, second-work-of-grace holiness teaching…

Martin recounts a man in his church, a 'Christian for 40 years,' who dismissed the importance of practical holiness, stating his only concern was his positional holiness in Christ. This illustrates the error of 'positionalism.'

I've actually had people tell me this. Had somebody tell me that right here in this church. When I preached a message on holiness one time, a man who'd been, quote, a Christian for 40 years came up and said, my young man says you've got it all wrong. The only holiness I'm concerned about is that which I have before God in Jesus Christ and how I walk and live down here is not my concern.

18:02 - 18:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin critiques several common, yet unbiblical, answers to the question of how to cleanse one's way, including positionalism, second-work-of-grace holiness teaching…

He shares a personal anecdote about his godly Pentecostal grandmother, who 'not only shouts loud but lives right,' to acknowledge that genuine godliness can exist across denominational lines, while still critiquing specific theological tenets of Pentecostalism.

Then some of our Pentecostal friends, and I do not say this disparaging them, because I have many dear friends. My godly grandmother, whose prayers were part of God's instrument to bring me in the kingdom, is a godly Pentecostal woman who not only shouts loud but lives right. And that's all right. Someone said, I don't care how high you jump and loud you shout, just so long as you walk straight when you come down.

19:06 - 19:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin critiques several common, yet unbiblical, answers to the question of how to cleanse one's way, including positionalism, second-work-of-grace holiness teaching…

He quotes a saying, 'I don't care how high you jump and loud you shout, just so long as you walk straight when you come down,' to emphasize that outward expressions of faith must be accompanied by righteous living.

Then some of our Pentecostal friends, and I do not say this disparaging them, because I have many dear friends. My godly grandmother, whose prayers were part of God's instrument to bring me in the kingdom, is a godly Pentecostal woman who not only shouts loud but lives right. And that's all right. Someone said, I don't care how high you jump and loud you shout, just so long as you walk straight when you come down.

19:06 - 19:32 Read in full sermon

The point: When you pray for grace, do so with your 'whole heart,' desperately acknowledging your weakness and pleading for God's intervention.

He quotes the hymn 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,' specifically 'Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love,' to illustrate the Psalmist's confession of helplessness and tendency to stray.

But I've got a problem. Even though the grace of God has touched me and I want to be holy and I want to be obedient, there's another principle that makes me want to wander. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

25:56 - 26:18 Read in full sermon

The point: When you pray for grace, do so with your 'whole heart,' desperately acknowledging your weakness and pleading for God's intervention.

He quotes Paul's words from Romans 7 about delighting in God's law with the mind but finding 'another law within my members warring against the law of my mind,' to describe the internal struggle against sin.

That's what the Psalmist is saying. Paul said it in New Testament terminology. He said, I delight after the law of God with my mind, but I find what? Another law within my members warring against the law of my mind.

26:18 - 26:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Demonstrate your belief in the necessity of the Holy Spirit's power by actively participating in corporate prayer, such as Wednesday night prayer meetings.

He uses the analogy of the heart being a 'tinderbox of iniquity' and temptation being a 'lively spark' to illustrate the danger of temptation and the need for God's grace to prevent sin.

And then we confess, lead me not into temptation. We're telling God that left to ourselves we'll walk in paths we ought not, and that when we come into those places our hearts are like a tinderbox of iniquity, and every temptation is like a lively spark. And we say, God, don't let the sparks fall. I'm afraid of what'll happen.

29:31 - 29:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Demonstrate your belief in the necessity of the Holy Spirit's power by actively participating in corporate prayer, such as Wednesday night prayer meetings.

He quotes the hymn 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,' 'Here's my heart, Lord, oh, take and seal it,' to illustrate the prayer for God's power to keep one from wandering.

And we say, it's that holy distrust of ourselves, that sanctified lack of confidence. But he doesn't stop there. He calls upon a God who's able by his grace to keep him from wandering. So his prayer is not only a confession of his helplessness, but also a confession of his faith that there's something God can do in the mysterious operations of his spirit that can check that tendency to wander and the hymn writer hit it right on the head when he said, here's my heart, Lord.

29:51 - 30:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Consistently expose yourself to God's Word daily, as there is no substitute for it in pursuing holiness.

He uses the analogy of a man collecting and laying up rare 50-cent pieces to illustrate the process of finding, accumulating, and storing God's Word in the heart.

And assimilation involves what? Well, you can't lay up something that first of all you don't find. A man who's laying up a treasure of 50-cent pieces, they're a rare item these days, he's got to go out and find them first. So the first step to laying up the word in the heart is get exposed to the word.

31:23 - 31:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Practice meditation on God's Word, turning its truths over in your mind and applying them to your thought and living patterns.

He extends the 50-cent piece analogy, describing pockets with holes to represent minds and hearts that fail to retain what is heard or read from the Word, leading to wasted effort.

Now, here's the man who's out hunting fifty cent pieces and when he finds them, he puts them in a pocket with a hole in it. All his labor's in vain. Doesn't work. Better make sure his pockets are sold over.

32:27 - 32:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Practice meditation on God's Word, turning its truths over in your mind and applying them to your thought and living patterns.

He uses the analogy of taking a 'well-cut flawless diamond' and turning it to see how light dances and sparkles from different angles, to illustrate the process of meditation on God's truth.

And I imagine I trample over an awful lot of my sermon when I walk to that back door to shake a hand. Hmm. I wonder how much. own sermon I trample over it might be discouraging seriously don't we do this not only with what we hear in church but in our own personal bible reading so if we're going to lay up the word we must not only have exposure but we've got to learn how to accumulate and store up now how do you do this this is where meditation comes in meditation is taking the 50 cent piece and putting it in a good secure place that's why psalm 1 says the god-blessed man is the man who medita...

32:49 - 34:10 Read in full sermon

The point: In situations of provocation or mistreatment, allow the Word of God, hidden in your heart, to dictate your attitude and reaction, rather than giving in to fleshly responses.

He presents a detailed hypothetical scenario of a reckless young driver causing an accident that injures children, then asks how a Christian should react. This illustrates the need for the Word to govern immediate responses to provocation.

You're driving down Bloomfield Avenue and some young man says, one squirt, 16-year-old, 70-year-old kid has just gotten his license and has turned a deaf ear to everything he's heard in school about being careful when you're driving the rest and you've got several children with you, maybe taking them home from Sunday school, your own children. And this fellow recklessly cuts in in front of you, you've got to slam your brakes, he throws one of the kids over so they bang their nose on the dashboard and you've got to take them to the hospital for a couple of stitches. Now how are you going to act...

36:45 - 37:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes by using Christ's temptation in Matthew 4 as the perfect example of how the Word, stored in the heart, provides direction and grace to overcome temptation…

He uses the narrative of Jesus' temptation in Matthew 4 as the ultimate example of how the Word, hidden in the heart, provides the directive and grace to overcome temptation, rather than merely quoting verses.

You're familiar with the narrative, most of you, in Matthew chapter 4. I always get a little bit disturbed when I read in books, well, the way you overcome temptation is fight the devil with the Word of God. I never quite know what people mean by that. And they use this example of our Lord where He quoted Bible verses to the devil as though quoting those verses somehow the devil just jumped up and got afraid and turned around and went away.

41:31 - 41:54 Read in full sermon