In Sending Forth Church Planters

In this part of the sermon: Martin opens by establishing that God alone is self-sustaining and that all creatures and institutions he brings into being must be sustained by him, grounding the sermon in the…

Martin opens with the philosophical distinction between God's self-existence and the derived, dependent existence of all creatures and institutions - any institution brought into being by God will come to nothing unless he sustains it.

There is nothing in God's universe that is self-originating, self-sustaining, and self-perpetuating except God himself.

0:00 - 0:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin recaps the previous studies on the theology and practice of Christian life, evangelism and missions, and the first two divisions of ministerial recognition and training…

Martin humorously describes what he calls the 'clerical fibrillation' - an imaginary special twitch in the ventricles or arteries of the heart by which men might suppose God supernaturally brands them for ministry - to illustrate that Christ uses ordinary means, not miraculous physical signs, to call men.

that promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ in the new covenant, who as He continues to nourish and cherish His church in the language of Ephesians 5, He continually gives to His church pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of service. And so what we did last week is to raise the question, how do we know if Christ the head of the church is fashioning a man into a shepherd after His own heart in this whole matter of the preliminary recognition of Christ's gift? He does not send an angel down with a red hot poker to brand such people in their foreheads. He does not gi...

10:55 - 12:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin recaps the previous studies on the theology and practice of Christian life, evangelism and missions, and the first two divisions of ministerial recognition and training…

Wrenching a ministerial candidate out of the church during his most formative years is compared to taking a medical student away from hospitals and surgical wards - the very environment that makes a physician - making the concept not only unbiblical but ludicrous when applied.

And that simple and obvious fact is alas overlooked by so many when this issue is addressed. But then if the head of the church begins to brood over the spirit of a man and the agency of his own accurate self-assessment and the assessment of the mature people of God and the formal encouragement of the existing leadership indicate that he ought to be ought to obtain some specialized training under ordinary circumstances, in what context should he obtain that training? Should he be wrenched out of that which is the pillar and ground of the truth in the most crucial period of his acquisition of t...

13:59 - 15:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin recaps the previous studies on the theology and practice of Christian life, evangelism and missions, and the first two divisions of ministerial recognition and training…

As a parallel to the doctor analogy, Martin describes taking a man away from a ballpark, baseball bats, and gloves while he is preparing to be a major league ball player - equally absurd as separating a ministerial student from the life of the church during his formative period.

And that simple and obvious fact is alas overlooked by so many when this issue is addressed. But then if the head of the church begins to brood over the spirit of a man and the agency of his own accurate self-assessment and the assessment of the mature people of God and the formal encouragement of the existing leadership indicate that he ought to be ought to obtain some specialized training under ordinary circumstances, in what context should he obtain that training? Should he be wrenched out of that which is the pillar and ground of the truth in the most crucial period of his acquisition of t...

13:59 - 15:20 Read in full sermon

The point: When God sovereignly works outside his ordinary institutions, that extraordinary freedom does not authorize Christians to bypass those institutions; human liberty is governed by God's revealed will, not his sovereign pre…

Philip in Acts 8 is presented as evidence that the scattered preachers of Acts 8:4 were not freelancers but recognized ministers. Philip had been formally set apart as one of the seven in Acts 6 and is later identified as Philip the Evangelist in Acts 21:8.

He sends for Saul, and Saul comes, and they stay there a lengthy period of time establishing the church. Now, it may well be that those who are described as preaching the word had never had any formal recognition, but not necessarily. It's an open-ended question. Because back in Acts chapter 8, no sooner does Luke give this general description, they that were scattered abroad went about preaching, but he begins to tell us about such a person, Philip.

22:01 - 22:35 Read in full sermon

The point: When God sovereignly works outside his ordinary institutions, that extraordinary freedom does not authorize Christians to bypass those institutions; human liberty is governed by God's revealed will, not his sovereign pre…

Martin uses the principle that God may sovereignly sidestep his own institutions as a foil: God's extraordinary freedom does not authorize human deviation from his ordinary revealed patterns, just as a king's prerogative to pardon does not license citizens to break laws.

It would only show that God is free to work apart from his own institutions when he chooses to do so. However, and oh, may God help us to get hold of this principle, what God may do in the free exercise of his sovereignty to sidestep his own institutions, I am never at liberty to do without sin.

23:51 - 24:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Missionary strategy and church-planting vision must arise from a context of prayer, fasting, and deep engagement in the life of a healthy church - not from business planning sessions or sociological strategy.

Martin vividly contrasts what Acts 13 actually records - prophets and teachers ministering to the Lord and fasting - with what a modern parachurch approach would picture: meetings with local Christian businessmen to assess financial resources and sociologists to plot contextualization strategy within the Roman Empire. The contrast is pointed and deliberate.

Prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manan the foster brother of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And as they met with local Christian businessmen to assess their financial resources, and as they met with sociologists and anthropologists to plot their strategy of contextualization of their message within the Roman Empire, no, no such nonsense is recorded in the Bible. Missionary strategy did not begin in the context of the moneybags and of sociologists and anthropologists.

30:56 - 31:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Missionary strategy and church-planting vision must arise from a context of prayer, fasting, and deep engagement in the life of a healthy church - not from business planning sessions or sociological strategy.

Even though Paul had been directly commissioned from heaven at his conversion, God required many years of shaping before thrusting him forth - and when the time came, God still required the church's laying on of hands, showing the secondary and instrumental agent will not be pushed back in the shadows.

And now the time has come and God is going to thrust Him forth. The Lord Himself who laid hold of Him and said, You are a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name to the Gentiles. He is the supreme and ultimate agent in Paul's church planting endeavors. But even when you've been converted by direct revelation, and commissioned from heaven, God is saying, the secondary and instrumental agent will not be pushed back in the shadows.

32:34 - 33:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Missionary strategy and church-planting vision must arise from a context of prayer, fasting, and deep engagement in the life of a healthy church - not from business planning sessions or sociological strategy.

Martin confesses that the laying on of hands in Acts 13 puzzled him for years - if the risen Christ had already laid his hand on Paul, why did he need the puny hands of fellow sinners? He uses his own former confusion to make the theological resolution memorable: the hands signify the church's recognition and commitment, not the impartation of grace.

If the risen Christ has laid His hand on a man, why in the world does He need the puny hands of His fellow creatures laid on Him? That ever bother you? That puzzled me for years. I said, the risen Christ laid His hand on Paul.

33:31 - 33:45 Read in full sermon

The point: A church planter or missionary must not regard himself as above the need for the church's commendation and means of grace - even Paul, apostolically commissioned, did not despise the institution he was building.

Martin voices the attitude Paul could have taken: having been commended by the Lord himself, the brethren are useful only for filling coffers and meeting monthly living expenses. He then demolishes this by showing Acts 15:40 records Paul going forth specifically commended by the brethren.

Wait a minute. I've been commended by the Lord. What do I need a brethren for? Except maybe to fill up the coffers and meet my monthly living expenses.

35:44 - 35:54 Read in full sermon

The point: A church planter or missionary must not regard himself as above the need for the church's commendation and means of grace - even Paul, apostolically commissioned, did not despise the institution he was building.

Martin sarcastically introduces Timothy as well reported of by the local Bible school, seminary Summa Cum Laude, the local mission board, and the psycho-cycle analysis team that had analyzed his fitness for foreign missionary service - and then delivers the actual text: well reported of by the brethren.

And he came to Derbe and to Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewess that believed. The same was what? Well reported of by the local Bible school. Well reported of by his seminary, Summa Cum Laude.

36:25 - 36:41 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes in detail the standard evangelical mission-board process and critiques it as inverting the biblical pattern by arrogating to independent boards the role of…

Martin narrates his own early Christian experience growing up in broad evangelicalism, attending a Christian college and a Bible school, describing how the prevailing missionary-call pattern worked: a personal sense of call in a closet or under group pressure at a missionary rally, followed by Bible school, mission board application, candidate school, and then raising support.

Now by application, let me say that since this is the teaching of the Word, the Word of God, we have refused as a church from our very inception the prevailing pattern of a call and commission to home or foreign missions which willfully or ignorantly sets aside this pattern. The normal pattern, the one with which I grew up, it was my spiritual milk and my crackers and my Swibeck and my spiritual infancy having come down the route of broad evangelicalism in my early days as a Christian and attending to one Christian college for two years and a Bible school for another two years that were interd...

39:16 - 40:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes in detail the standard evangelical mission-board process and critiques it as inverting the biblical pattern by arrogating to independent boards the role of…

In the flush of first love to Christ, a young person is told the epitome of love to Christ is to offer himself for the mission field - so naturally he raises his hand, signs the pledge card, walks to the front, or crawls on hands and knees. Martin uses this emotionally manipulative context to expose the faulty foundation of the missionary-call system.

In a context where you were taught the height of spiritual devotion, it's to give yourself to missionary service. Well, in the flush of your fresh first love to Christ, you're told that the epitome of love to Christ is to offer yourself as a candidate for the mission field. Of course, you're going to raise your hand, sign the pledge card, walk to the front. You'll do crawl down on your hands and knees.

40:18 - 40:45 Read in full sermon

Driving home: where does that system find justification in the Word of God? As though the church were just an institution primarily for financial support in the great enterprise of church planting.

Martin describes receiving letters from mission-board approved candidates seeking a pulpit engagement - 'My name is so-and-so, approved candidate of such and such a mission. I'm in your area.' He notes without bitterness that their sincerity and earnestness shames many, but that the bottom line is they are prostituting themselves to obtain support.

And I'd love to come and tell you and your people about our work. But the bottom line is, and I don't say this with any degree of acrimony or bitterness to the people involved. Some of them, their sincerity and earnestness shames many of us. But the bottom line is, they're prostituting themselves to get their support.

41:45 - 42:06 Read in full sermon

The point: If the church delegates one part of her God-given work to experts or parachurch institutions, she opens the door to delegating everything - each abdication undermines the whole structure of biblical church life.

Martin introduces James Henley Thornwell as a godly Presbyterian who fought this battle within his own denomination over a hundred years ago, describing Thornwell's preaching as so powerful it makes Martin jealous to want to raise him from the dead to hear him preach just once.

But it's not a novel position. And I want to read to you from the godly Presbyterian who over a hundred years ago fought this battle within his own denomination over this very issue. Listen to the burning religious passion of James Henley Thornwell. And I use those words guardedly because when one reads in his biography a description of what happened when Thornwell preached, it makes me jealous to want to raise him from the dead and hear him preach just once.

43:57 - 44:30 Read in full sermon

The point: If the church delegates one part of her God-given work to experts or parachurch institutions, she opens the door to delegating everything - each abdication undermines the whole structure of biblical church life.

Thornwell argues that the system of independent boards involves an abandonment of the church's duty to conduct every department of the Savior's work, including training sons for holy ministry and sending the gospel to destitute portions of the earth - a position held by the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1837.

It appears to us that this whole system he's talking about the establishment of independent boards to clear and send people to the foreign mission field apart from the control and the scrutiny and the activity of the church. It appears to us that this whole system involves an abandonment of the great principle that it is the duty of the church in her ecclesiastical capacity to conduct every department of the work which the Savior has committed to her. He goes on to say, we believe that if there be any departments of Christian effort to which the church of Christ is bound in her appropriate cha...

44:47 - 46:00 Read in full sermon

The point: If the church delegates one part of her God-given work to experts or parachurch institutions, she opens the door to delegating everything - each abdication undermines the whole structure of biblical church life.

Thornwell argues the church's duties rest upon her by God's authority and she can no more throw them off upon independent boards than a man can delegate to his neighbor the care of his own family while abandoning himself to idleness and ease.

Then he goes on to argue with equal cogency the duties of the church are duties of the church and our duties which rest upon her authority by God himself. He has given her the organization which she possesses for the purpose of discharging these duties. She can therefore no more throw them off upon others than a man can delegate to his neighbor the care of his own family while abandoning himself to idleness and ease.

46:12 - 46:42 Read in full sermon

The point: If the church delegates one part of her God-given work to experts or parachurch institutions, she opens the door to delegating everything - each abdication undermines the whole structure of biblical church life.

Martin uses the example of Billy Graham crusades coming into a metropolitan area, with Reformed churches joining arms with openly liberal and questionably orthodox men in ecumenical evangelistic endeavors - he could not pray for God's blessing upon such compromise. Used to illustrate that delegating one part of the church's work leads to delegating another with compounding compromise.

We've got the Graham juggernaut coming into the metropolitan area glad to do it. And church is jumping on by the dozens. Men who would never be found in any other context identified with openly liberal and questionably orthodox men yet joining arms in joint endeavors to confront the metropolitan area with the gospel of Christ in such a context of compromise that God the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of truth is so great that he is not. He is the spirit of truth.

47:19 - 47:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Every difficulty faced in the path of biblical obedience is a call to pray, fast, and seek God - not to hand the burden to parachurch experts who will carry it in unbiblical ways.

Thornwell: no voice is to be heard in the household of faith but the voice of the Son of God; the power of the church is purely ministerial and declarative; the great error of the church in all ages has been presumptuous reliance upon her own understanding.

She is only to hold forth the doctrine, enforce the laws and execute the government which Christ has given her. She is to add nothing of her own to and subtract nothing from what her Lord, his established discretionary power she does not possess. The great error of the church in all ages, the fruitful source of her apostasy and crime has been a presumptuous reliance upon her own understanding. You want God to curse this church?

49:46 - 50:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No voice is to be heard in the household of faith but the voice of the Son of God. No voice to be heard but the voice of the Son of God.

Thornwell argues the absolute perfection of scripture as a directory to man was a cardinal principle of the Reformation - whatever cannot be traced to scripture directly or by necessary inference is denounced as human invention; and the total silence of the Word about mission boards seals their condemnation.

And whatever could not be traced to them either directly or by necessary inference was denounced as a human invention, as mere will-worship, which God abhors so deeply that in instance, inspired Apostle has connected it with idolatry or the worshipping of angels. He's referring to Colossians. Now the total silence of the word of God with respect to such contrivances as mission boards seals their condemnation.

51:18 - 51:48 Read in full sermon

The point: A church's relationship with its missionaries must be ecclesiastical - shared blood and heartbeat, not merely financial transactions. When missionaries hurt, the sending church must hurt with them.

Martin contrasts mere financial support of missionaries (shekels) with the deep ecclesiastical bond of Antioch that had its blood involved with Paul and Barnabas - so that when they returned, they stayed a long time because they had shared missionary blood, pulses, and heartbeat, not merely filled a coffer.

Not just its shekels. Their blood. That's why when they came back, they stayed no little time at Antioch with the brethren. Why?

55:34 - 55:42 Read in full sermon

The point: When God places a church-authorized herald of Christ as a roadblock on the path to hell, the unconverted must receive him as a messenger from the sovereign King and flee to Christ for reconciliation.

Martin uses the image of a humble, church-authorized servant of Christ as a roadblock placed by God in the path of an unconverted person headed to hell - warning that to hurtle over that roadblock is to despise God's greatest gifts and merit a special place in hell.

My friend, listen. When God puts before you people who know the Gospel and know the God of the Gospel and love God and love you and seek to set before you the horrible state of your heart and of your condition, ambition in the court of heaven and seek to entreat you to repent and believe the Gospel. When God puts as a roadblock in your path to hell a humble, ordinary, fellow, but redeemed sinner who speaks to you in the name of Christ, of your need of Christ and of the glory of Christ and the sufficiency of Christ and the willingness of Christ to receive all and any who come. My friend, if you...

57:08 - 58:35 Read in full sermon