The Means Pursued

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains why the Academy is organically connected to Trinity Baptist Church, rooted in the biblical doctrine of the church's role as the 'pillar and ground of the truth' (1…

Martin uses a diagram of a square (Academy) within a larger circle (Trinity Baptist Church) to visually represent the organic connection and context of the Academy's work within the church's total life and ministry.

represents the academy, it is set within this larger circle, the context of the functions and ministry of the academy, which is the total life and ministry of Trinity Baptist Church. You forgive my very elementary shorthand. The total, life and ministry of Trinity Baptist Church. Now, why are we so convinced that this work ought to be carried on in this context? Does it not place a tremendous burden upon the church

7:37 - 8:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains why the Academy is organically connected to Trinity Baptist Church, rooted in the biblical doctrine of the church's role as the 'pillar and ground of the truth' (1…

Martin uses the idiom 'get this monkey off our back' to describe the temptation to outsource ministerial training to external institutions, highlighting the church's unique biblical responsibility.

And if you think that's overstatement, you'll see after a little bit that it is not. Well, why in the world should we not simply do like most people have done? Trust this work to some institution that functions out here for the purpose of the work of the academy. For the specific and exclusive purpose of training men for the ministry, and get this monkey off our back.

8:44 - 9:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that if men are to be official teachers, they must be able to decode the message God has given in Hebrew and Greek, requiring at least a working acquaintance with the original languages.

Martin humorously describes the initial challenge of learning Greek and Hebrew alphabets as something that will 'bring the stars out of their eyes and cause a meteor shower' for starry-eyed students, emphasizing the difficulty but necessity of the task.

Why confront a poor, young, starry-eyed, would-be preacher with alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta? Why confront him with aleph, bete, gimel, nalep, hey? I mean, let's be reasonable. There's nothing that will more quickly bring the stars out of their eyes and cause a meteor shower than that eight o'clock class the first day of the first semester and the poor, young fella has to learn the Greek alphabet or the Hebrew alphabet.

28:37 - 29:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that if men are to be official teachers, they must be able to decode the message God has given in Hebrew and Greek, requiring at least a working acquaintance with the original languages.

Martin quotes Charles Hodge, stating that God 'has spoken in the code language of Greek in the New Testament' and Hebrew in the Old, underscoring the necessity for ministers to learn these languages to decode God's message.

Well, for the simple reason, in the language of Charles Hodge, God has spoken in the code language of Greek in the New Testament. And you'll get all stood on your head when you start Hebrew because you don't open your book here. You've got to open it back here. And that's what he spoke in it.

29:14 - 29:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire basic knowledge of Greek to be able to convict gainsayers, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, who misinterpret Scripture based on original language claims.

Martin provides an example of confronting a well-instructed Jehovah's Witness who misinterprets John 1:1 ('the Word was a God'), demonstrating how a lack of basic Greek knowledge leaves one unable to 'convict that gainsayer'.

And all you need to do is confront one well-instructed Jehovah's Witness to know if you don't have some basic knowledge of Greek, he'll tie you up in knots. Because he begins, he begins to tell you that in John 1-1 the proper rendering is in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was a God. And then he begins to quote certain Greek authorities to prove to you that that's what it means. And if you don't have at least a grounding in some of the elements of the Greek language, you won't be able to convict that gainsayer.

30:32 - 31:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to have exegesis courses in every major specimen of biblical literature, providing living examples of how to expound and apply different types of literature.

Martin uses the analogy of teaching someone to use a screwdriver with different screws to explain how exegesis courses provide men with tools and then require them to apply those tools by preparing papers on specific passages.

They have the most amount of papers or the largest amount of papers to prepare. It's like you're telling a man who says, I don't know what a screwdriver is. I don't know how you use it. And you say, all right, here's a screwdriver. Here's a board. Give him four different kinds of screws. And you say, this is how you put them in. He says, I think I've got it. We say, all right, show me. You hand him the screwdriver and a handful of screws and say, go to it.

40:34 - 40:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains historical theology's goal: to impart an awareness of the church's growing understanding of Scripture's truth throughout history. Courses cover major…

Martin notes that some people act as though they are the first to ever pick up a Bible and ask 'what does it say?', highlighting a common oversight of the church's historical understanding of Scripture.

All right. Let's take the second area of the theological categories. The second of these categories. Now, it's an amazing thing for some people to discover that we aren't the first people that ever picked up our Bibles with the question, what does it say?

42:01 - 42:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Be aware of major personalities, movements, and biblical issues throughout church history, discerning whether they reflected biblical principles or deviations, as there is 'no new heresy'.

Martin uses the biblical metaphor of the conflict between the 'seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent' to describe the ongoing spiritual warfare reflected in the personalities and movements throughout church history.

The men of God have helped articulate the truth of God. The devil's men have tried to attack that truth. And so the concern of historical theology is to be aware of those personalities who have, as it were, been an extension of that ancient conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. All right?

44:26 - 44:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Be aware of major personalities, movements, and biblical issues throughout church history, discerning whether they reflected biblical principles or deviations, as there is 'no new heresy'.

Martin cites Athanasius standing against the world during the Christological controversy and the debates with Arius and Pelagius as examples of key historical figures and issues studied in historical theology.

No, we're concerned with historical theology. So what is done in these courses is, when we come, say, to the Christological controversy, we had Athanasius standing against the world and all of the visible church, most of it standing against Athanasius, the whole issue of the doctrine of the person of Christ, and Arius, this fourth-century heretic, and then later on you had the problem, sorry, yeah, fourth-century heretic, and later on Pelagius and Augustine or Augustine, the great issues, the Christological issue, the anthropological issue, what is man, those issues then are more thoroughly ex...

45:55 - 46:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that theological insights are checked by the abiding testimony of the Spirit and the Word of God in the Church, avoiding 'kookish' notions not seen by others.

Martin warns against coming up with 'something kookish' and claiming unique insights, emphasizing the need for systematic theology to be checked by historical theology and the abiding testimony of the Spirit in the church.

So exegetical theology and historical theology become handmaidens to the systematic theologian as he exegetes the given parts, sees them in their relationship to each other, sees them in relationship to the whole, and then he checks out his insights by the abiding testimony of the Spirit, the Word of God in the Church, and doesn't come up with something kookish and say, blessed are all you people, I've seen something nobody else ain't never seen before. Now that's a tremendous responsibility, and we'll see next week when we come to the question how does one prepare to teach any one of these di...

52:00 - 52:45 Read in full sermon