His Hands

The point: Seek the face of God that each of our hearts may be fertile soil for the word and that the Spirit will take that word and so implant it that those fruits that God alone can produce will be produced in each of our hearts.

The parable of the sower (or soils) is used to illustrate that the effectiveness of the preached Word depends on the state of the hearer's heart, not just the preacher.

This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, October 9th, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. As we sang that hymn together, you who have any acquaintance with what we commonly call the parable of the sower,

0:00 - 0:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin asserts that backbone is essential for a man of God, humorously recounting an anecdote about bishops miraculously extracting backbone during ordination. He laments that…

An Australian cleric's humorous observation that bishops seem to miraculously extract a man's backbone during ordination is used to highlight the common lack of spiritual backbone in ministry.

But without this element in his spiritual anatomy, he cannot, in any sense of the word, be called a man of God. Now, I don't mean to be humorous when I say this, but it was reported to me by one of my Australian friends that a young leading cleric in Australia, had the courage to say in his own Anglican communion and fellowship that while he did not believe there was any magical power in the hands of the bishops to convey any special grace when they laid their hands upon men and ordained them,

22:15 - 22:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is in the application of the truth that the conscience is smitten and the heart laid bare.

The story of Nathan's parable to David about the ewe lamb is used to illustrate that objective exposition is insufficient; pointed, personal application is necessary to smite the conscience, requiring backbone.

That's when people begin to bristle because what happens is this. You see, as long as David stood before Nathan, and was telling stories, all it did was give David a vicarious emotional outlet. When he heard his lovely little parable about the man that had one little ewe lamb and he loved it and he slept with it and all the rest, and the rich man came along and took his lamb, David was incensed and full of anger. And if Nathan had simply said, well, now I'll leave and go home and pray that the Holy Spirit will apply it, David would have gone to sleep that night mulling over in his mind what a ...

42:46 - 43:28 Read in full sermon

The point: It is the peculiar responsibility of the under shepherds to go to that sheep tactfully, prayerfully, lovingly, yes, grease up the end of the arrow as much as you can, yes, but having said all of that, the moment of truth…

The change in a person's gaze from delight to avoidance after a rebuke is used to illustrate the painful interim period between rebuke and eventual favor, emphasizing the emotional cost of exercising backbone.

But it's that interim between the rebuke and the afterward where you run the risk of the distance. And it breaks your heart, you see, because the steel backbone doesn't give you a steel heart. And you sense when that person looks at you, there isn't that look of delight. Used to be when their eyes would meet yours halfway across the parking lot.

52:18 - 52:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second reason is to faithfully expound and apply unwanted truths in personal dealings with God's people. Martin highlights Paul's example of dealing with believers 'as a…

Children who once lined up for hugs but now avoid the pastor when the preaching begins to make demands on them illustrates the 'offense of the cross' and the personal cost of pressing Christ's claims, requiring backbone.

Mm-hmm. Just like when the little kids who run up week after week and get in line for their hugs, when they start getting old enough to know that all that they've heard in the preaching is beginning to make demands upon them and it's beginning to draw a line and they're beginning to count the cost and they know they can't have Christ and the gospel and everything they've heard and have the world and all that's pulling for them. No longer do they line up for hugs. They don't even line up to say hello.

52:55 - 53:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third reason is to expound, apply, and implement unpopular truths in the administration of God's house. Elders are rulers who administer God's non-negotiable house rules, not…

Jesus' vigorous cleansing of the temple, making a scourge and driving out merchants, is used as a vivid illustration of zeal for God's house and the implementation of unpopular truths in administration.

But he does have administrative authority to see that God's house rules are recognized and obeyed in God's house. And this whole subject as we trace it through the scriptures is one that breaks our hearts to see that again and again it was the defilement of God's house that brought the wrath of God upon his covenant people. And the Lord Jesus did not in any way neutralize the disposition of the prophets, but rather in that vivid description of the first cleansing of the temple, we see the gentle one, the one who said,

56:52 - 57:35 Read in full sermon

The point: A man of God must be prepared, not merely to preach upon from the pulpit, but he must expound and apply and implement in the administration of the house of God.

The story of a pastor and deacons in a Louisiana Baptist church implementing membership discipline, leading to slander and opposition, illustrates the real-world cost and necessity of spiritual backbone in church administration.

that has rocked along for 125 years in that community, and for at least the past 50 years, it has had no impact on the community, it's caused no problems, no one's bothered it, it's bothered no one. But when the pastor and the deacons were determined that membership would begin to mean something and began to cull from the membership everyone who was not walking as a visible disciple, present in the services, manifesting a credible profession of faith, showing submission to the word of God not perfectly, but purposefully, all hell has broken loose upon them.

62:08 - 62:49 Read in full sermon