Why Preach or Pray?

The point: Clear away objections that stand as stumbling blocks to embracing clearly taught scripture.

Martin repeats the phrase 'Divine truth is like a beautifully written gospel' multiple times, though the analogy itself is not fully developed, it serves to emphasize the harmonious and intricate nature of God's truth.

And then the third reason is that together we might wonder and marvel at the glorious interrelationship of the truth of God. Divine truth is like a beautifully written gospel. Divine truth is like a beautifully written gospel. Divine truth is like a beautifully written gospel.

6:54 - 7:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God has ordained the means as well as the end. Simple little statement, but if you get hold of what it means, it'll solve you, solve for you a lot of problems into which people have fallen and in which they've become ens…

A man sees four drowning men, purposes to save one, chooses a means, and then physically rescues him. This illustrates that election is God's purpose to save, but salvation requires the means (the gospel and the Spirit's work) to be applied.

these are not salvation. Let me illustrate. A man is walking by the Passaic River and he sees four men who've just spilled out of a boat and they're drowning. And he stands on the side of the shore wondering what he should do. And he sees that all four of them are floundering, apparently none of them able to swim. And he knows he can't go in and en masse bring them all out and he can't just stand there and do nothing. He's not cursed with this plague of indifference. He's not cursed with the indifference that we find in our society. He's got a little bit of the bowels of human compassion.

17:54 - 18:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to say to people who bring reproach to the name of Christ, 'Your blood be upon your own head, I am clean,' when necessary, in Calvary love.

Paul's blunt statement 'your blood be upon your own head' is contrasted with modern self-help advice, highlighting Paul's obedience to God's commission over human popularity.

From henceforth I will go to the Gentiles. Mr. Carnegie would certainly strike that out of his course on how to win friends and influence people. You just don't tell people your blood be on your head. I'm done with you. But Paul did it. And he did it in obedience to the commission of his Lord. And may I just say that I'm convinced that there's some men in our generation that could do God a service and do churches a service if they would say that to people who've done nothing but run one preacher after another. Out of a church and bring nothing but reproach to the name of Christ. I've been in s...

25:22 - 26:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to say to people who bring reproach to the name of Christ, 'Your blood be upon your own head, I am clean,' when necessary, in Calvary love.

Paul, despite his faith, experienced fear and anxiety in Corinth due to opposition. God's vision to him ('I have much people in this city') served to comfort and encourage him, showing that even great apostles had human struggles.

Lord, what's going to happen? Here's the opposition. And he had seen this pattern so often that perhaps he began to get a little gun shy. Paul was not some kind of a half angel. He was a man. He had fears. He had anxieties. Difference is that he learned how to handle them a little better than we do at times. But the Lord came to him and comforted him and said in verse nine, then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. Now notice the next phrase. I have much people in the city...

26:31 - 27:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for something God hasn't purposed to give, knowing that the act of praying itself will do you good, and you don't know what he's purposed.

David fasted and prayed for his son, even after God declared the child would die. This illustrates that we should pray based on God's character and the possibility of His intervention, even if His decrees are not fully known to us.

and so the doctrine of god's absolute sovereignty and his eternal decrees and purposes instead of hindering prayer it became the strong foundation upon which they stood to plead with this great god that he would intervene on their behalf to magnify his name and to vindicate the cause of his son the lord jesus christ why do we pray believing god's ordained all things because he who ordains the ends ordains the means and locked up in the outworking of his purposes are the prayers of his people but you say suppose i pray for something god hasn't purposed to give it won't hurt you just the fact yo...

46:34 - 47:59 Read in full sermon