Warnings in a Holiday Season

The point: Treat the holiday season with the same spiritual vigilance as any other time — the devil does not observe a Christmas truce and indwelling sin is not temporarily neutralized.

Martin uses a 'beware of dog' sign to illustrate the meaning of the command 'take heed' — it connotes conscious, concerned alertness to a specific danger, not mere awareness of something harmless.

That means be alert to the possibility of a four-legged animal who may do you harm if you get too close to it. Now you see we can be aware of things without having to beware of those things. You wouldn't put a sign up, beware of the cake in the cupboard. You might say beware if you touch the cake in the cupboard to your kids.

8:47 - 9:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Treat the holiday season with the same spiritual vigilance as any other time — the devil does not observe a Christmas truce and indwelling sin is not temporarily neutralized.

Martin contrasts 'beware of dog' with a hypothetical 'beware of the cake in the cupboard' sign to show that 'beware' is reserved for real dangers, not neutral things — though you might warn your kids about the cake if touching it had consequences.

That means be alert to the possibility of a four-legged animal who may do you harm if you get too close to it. Now you see we can be aware of things without having to beware of those things. You wouldn't put a sign up, beware of the cake in the cupboard. You might say beware if you touch the cake in the cupboard to your kids.

8:47 - 9:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Treat the holiday season with the same spiritual vigilance as any other time — the devil does not observe a Christmas truce and indwelling sin is not temporarily neutralized.

Martin argues that since the devil does not sign a two-week truce between Christmas and New Year, and indwelling sin is not neutered from December 20 through January 1, the command to take heed applies with full force to the holiday season.

So you see the whole concept then is taking heed and being mentally alert in the light of possible dangers that exist. And so our Lord, in the light of the circumstances that will surround His second advent, commands His disciples, take heed unto yourselves. Be constantly on the alert, the alert with reference to yourself and in particular with reference to dangers peculiar to you, even as disciples. And because He speaks in the present imperative, He is telling us that there is never a time when it is either safe or right to give ourselves over to a spirit of spiritual carelessness. We are to...

9:11 - 10:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And what happens to a heart that is heavy, weighed down? It is a heart that is unresponsive to the voice of God. It is a heart that is insensitive to spiritual realities.

Martin uses 1 Timothy 5:16 to illustrate the Greek word translated 'overcharged' — the church being 'burdened' with an unnecessarily long widow roll — pressing down with the weight of excessive responsibility.

1 Timothy 5 and verse 16. Dealing with the subject of the church's responsibilities to widows, if any woman that believeth hath widows, let her relieve them, and let not the church, here's the word, let not the church be burdened, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. You get the picture? He says he doesn't want the church weighed down with an unnecessarily long role of widows for which the church feels responsible.

13:22 - 13:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And what happens to a heart that is heavy, weighed down? It is a heart that is unresponsive to the voice of God. It is a heart that is insensitive to spiritual realities.

Martin cites Matthew 26:43 — the disciples' eyes 'weighed down with sleep' in Gethsemane — as the same Greek word used figuratively, illustrating what it means for the heart to be pressed down and unresponsive.

It's the picture of someone taking on additional responsibility that presses him down. It's the word used figuratively to describe the state of the disciples when they fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. In Matthew 26 and verse 43 we read, their eyes were, here's the word, burdened down, weighed down, with sleep. Now that's the word that's used here.

13:56 - 14:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And what happens to a heart that is heavy, weighed down? It is a heart that is unresponsive to the voice of God. It is a heart that is insensitive to spiritual realities.

The Septuagint uses the same word for Pharaoh's 'heavy' heart — a heart unresponsive to God's voice — as a biblical image for what Christ warns His disciples against.

We are to take heed, that's the general duty, but the specific focus of that duty is taking heed, being watchful of our hearts, and in particular being watchful that the heart does not become weighed down. The heart does not become heavy. And in the Greek translation of the Old Testament this is the same word used in Exodus 7, 14 to describe the state of Pharaoh's heart. The heart became heavy.

14:22 - 14:49 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines the three specific dangers Christ names, organizing them into two categories — excessive indulgence of legitimate fleshly appetites, and excessive preoccupation…

Martin quotes the Arndt-Gingrich Greek lexicon to define 'surfeiting' as carousing, intoxication, and its resultant headache and hangover — noting humorously that 'hangover' is not a modern word, since Christ used it.

That's people that give themselves to the task of understanding the meaning of words. This word means according to Arrington-Gingrich both carousing, intoxication and its resultant headache and hangover since it means dizziness and staggering when the head refuses to function. You thought hangover was a modern word? Our Lord used it.

18:14 - 18:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines the three specific dangers Christ names, organizing them into two categories — excessive indulgence of legitimate fleshly appetites, and excessive preoccupation…

Martin draws on Bunyan's characters Passion (who will have all his best things now) and Patience (who waits for the best in the world to come) to illustrate what happens when a disciple's heart is overcharged — he begins to live like the ungodly, oriented entirely to the present age.

He says you become in principle just like the ungodly. They are not explained in terms of those whose love is appearing whose whole lifestyle is governed by the world that will be ushered in at the return of Christ. They are like passion in pilgrim's progress. They will have all now.

21:14 - 21:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject the ascetic impulse — do not despise or feel guilty about legitimate festivity, good food, and laughter. Christ's own warning against excess proves he expected his people to live in full contact with these gifts.

Martin gives a vivid, humorous illustration of asceticism: the ascetic would serve food without any garnish — no sprig of parsley, no paprika on rice — because anything beautiful to the eye is beneath advanced spirituality. He invites philosophers and historians to excuse his simplified definition.

Marriage and all the concerns and delights and responsibilities and cares of marriage is beneath the highest standards of piety therefore to take a vow of singleness is to be most holy. A practical definition of asceticism is that which understands the ascetic to say matter is essentially evil therefore anything that pertains to matter what I touch, see, feel, enjoy is beneath the dignity of advanced spirituality. You take in only as much food as is necessary to keep the body going but you don't make your food enjoyable. You wouldn't serve it up with you know parsley a little sprig of parsley ...

23:05 - 24:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject the ascetic impulse — do not despise or feel guilty about legitimate festivity, good food, and laughter. Christ's own warning against excess proves he expected his people to live in full contact with these gifts.

Martin surveys how God underscored the greatest redemptive act of the Old Testament with the Passover feast and gathered the nation three times yearly for special feasts at Jerusalem — evidence that festivity is woven into redemptive history.

No, no. He knew that the life to which they would be called and in which they would live would be one in which they had constant and legitimate contact with the world of things food and drink and cares of this life. And it's an amazing thing that when you start going through and I had great blessing I wish it's one of the things I want to go back and do some further study just took my concordance and looked up all the references to feast and to feasting in the Old and the New Testament and some wonderful things were done in the midst of legitimate times of festivity in the Old and the New Test...

25:02 - 26:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject the ascetic impulse — do not despise or feel guilty about legitimate festivity, good food, and laughter. Christ's own warning against excess proves he expected his people to live in full contact with these gifts.

God used 'a man's full tummy and light heart' — Boaz having eaten well and drunk just enough to be relaxed — as the providential moment to bring Ruth the Moabitess into the very line of the Messiah. Martin notes that Naomi wisely told Ruth to wait until Boaz had eaten and drunk (not gotten drunk, but drunk) before making her proposal.

He's going to bring this Moabitess Ruth into the very line of Messiah and you know what he does? What he used? He used a man's full tummy and light heart who had eaten to the full and drunk just enough to be really relaxed. And you read about it in Ruth chapter 3.

26:19 - 26:38 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The devil didn't make your taste buds God did. And Christ had a full and proper set of taste buds that he used to the glory of God.

Martin reads Ruth 3:7 directly: 'And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain and she came softly and uncovered his feet.' A noble man and noble woman brought together by God in a context of legitimate feasting.

And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain and she came softly and uncovered his feet and laid her down and it came to pass at midnight that the man was afraid, etc. And you see this noble man and this noble woman being brought together in the providence of God in a context of feasting. You see our Lord's first miracle. It was not performed in a funeral parlor but at a wedding feast.

27:12 - 27:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The devil didn't make your taste buds God did. And Christ had a full and proper set of taste buds that he used to the glory of God.

Martin emphasizes that Christ's first miracle was performed not in a funeral parlor but at a wedding feast, and when the supply ran out he made wine — not extra sandwiches — much to the embarrassment of those who consider anything alcoholic inherently sinful.

And much to the embarrassment of those who try to say that anything with alcoholic content is wicked per se, it just cannot linguistically be supported. Our Lord did not make extra sandwiches when they ran out. He made wine. And even the steward of the feast who had the charge of the wine cellars said there's been a mistake.

27:47 - 28:15 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have been a party-pooper in your effort to be spiritual, recognize it as misguided zeal that hurts those who show love through generous hospitality, and enter into legitimate festive joy.

The steward of the feast noted that the best wine is normally served first and the cheaper wine after people's taste buds are dulled, but Jesus had kept the best until last — and the Scripture says it was there that he performed his first miracle and manifested his glory.

We usually give the best wine first and then when people's taste buds are dulled by eating a lot then we serve the cheaper stuff. But they said you've kept the best stuff till now. And it says in the scriptures it was there that he performed his first miracle and manifested his glory. Then you have that great feast it says, that Matthew prepared for the Lord.

28:15 - 28:38 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have been a party-pooper in your effort to be spiritual, recognize it as misguided zeal that hurts those who show love through generous hospitality, and enter into legitimate festive joy.

Matthew prepared a great feast for Christ after his call (Luke 5), Christ attended, and the very feast became the occasion for the declaration 'I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.' Festivity became the setting for a gospel proclamation.

He wanted to show his love to Christ after the Lord had called him. And we read in Luke chapter 5 that he prepared a great feast. And what did Jesus do? He went to that feast and that very feast and the presence of Christ at the feast became the occasion of that great statement recorded both in Matthew 9 and in Luke 5.

28:38 - 28:59 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have been a party-pooper in your effort to be spiritual, recognize it as misguided zeal that hurts those who show love through generous hospitality, and enter into legitimate festive joy.

The Pharisees looking through the window called Jesus 'friend of publicans and sinners, a glutton and a wine-bibber' — evidence that Christ fully entered into legitimate festive eating, fasting forty days when the Father's will required it, but digging into every dish when the Father's will spread a table.

I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and that our Lord did not sit off as an ascetic is evidence when the Pharisees looked through the window they said look at him friend of publicans and sinners a glutton and a wine-bibber. In other words I believe the Lord was digging right in like everybody else. Without once crossing the line into gluttony our Lord knew what it was to fast for 40 days and nights and deny himself legitimate food in the pursuit of the Father's will but when the Father's will spread a table in the house of a rich man and there was lobster and caviar and ...

28:59 - 30:16 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have been a party-pooper in your effort to be spiritual, recognize it as misguided zeal that hurts those who show love through generous hospitality, and enter into legitimate festive joy.

Martin paints a vivid, reverent picture: when the Father's will spread a table with lobster, caviar, roast beef, and capon, Christ would have taken a bit of every dish, nudged the person beside him to say 'Hey, this stuff is great — have you tried this?' and allowed his holy taste buds to extract every bit of sweetness. 'The devil didn't make your taste buds — God did.'

I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and that our Lord did not sit off as an ascetic is evidence when the Pharisees looked through the window they said look at him friend of publicans and sinners a glutton and a wine-bibber. In other words I believe the Lord was digging right in like everybody else. Without once crossing the line into gluttony our Lord knew what it was to fast for 40 days and nights and deny himself legitimate food in the pursuit of the Father's will but when the Father's will spread a table in the house of a rich man and there was lobster and caviar and ...

28:59 - 30:16 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have been a party-pooper in your effort to be spiritual, recognize it as misguided zeal that hurts those who show love through generous hospitality, and enter into legitimate festive joy.

Martin confesses that in his early Christian experience he went through a stage of being a party-pooper out of sincere but misguided zeal — feeling that festivity and food were incompatible with higher spiritual ends, and thereby hurting people who showed their love by providing bountifully for him.

Our Lord understands that. And knowing that the answer to the problem of excess was not an ascetic denial that would despise the gifts of God he issues the warning take heed lest your hearts be made heavy with an excessive intention of indulgence in those things which are the gifts of God. Now this warning of our Lord does not mean of course that we are to cut ourselves off from the festive seasons and be distant and boorish and some of you need this because in your effort to please the Lord and I know how real this is I went through a stage in my own early Christian experience when I was a pa...

31:04 - 32:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Set specific, predetermined limits on holiday entertainment (e.g., football games) before the season begins, committing by grace not to repeat past patterns of festive surfeit.

Martin confesses to his congregation that in past holiday seasons he had gone to bed with 'the hangover of a surfeit of football games,' vowing by grace that this year he would set a specific time limit and stick to it.

a warning some of you need and if no one else needs it I'm preaching to myself I'm praying to myself I'm praying for my family I'm praying for the children I'm praying for other children but as a young boy I don't even know how many people I want to love I love my family I love my prayers I want to bring a good love and joy to my family I want to be famous and clear and free I want with the hangover of a surfeit of football games.

35:30 - 36:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the biblical examples of Israel in the wilderness, Lot, and Belshazzar serve as sobering reminders that festive seasons have been the occasion of some of history's worst moral collapses — the warning is not hypotheti…

Martin cites Exodus 32:6 — 'the people ate and drank and rose up to play' — noting that the playing was not horseshoes but carnal indulgence and widespread fornication until God destroyed three thousand people. The same festive occasion that should have celebrated redemption became the scene of catastrophic moral collapse.

Now, you may not be built the way I am, but I'm confessing that that's been my experience. And I vowed by the grace of God that this year that would not be so, that I would determine that a certain amount of time would be given, and that alone, because the Lord says, Beware, lest your heart be weighted down with surfeiting. And that's why the same scriptures that show that feasting and periods of festivity can be seasons of great spiritual blessing, the same Bible shows us that feasting and periods of festivity have been times of great wickedness. You remember in the wilderness, it says the pe...

36:13 - 36:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the biblical examples of Israel in the wilderness, Lot, and Belshazzar serve as sobering reminders that festive seasons have been the occasion of some of history's worst moral collapses — the warning is not hypotheti…

Martin references Lot lingering too long by the fruit of the vine until he fathered two sons who became a scourge to the nation of Israel throughout its history — another instance of festive excess producing generational harm.

It was carnal indulgence. It was widespread fornication until God destroyed three thousand people. You remember when God possessed? It's when he lingered too long by the fruit of the vine until he bore those two sons who became a scourge in the side of the nation of Israel throughout all of its history.

37:02 - 37:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the biblical examples of Israel in the wilderness, Lot, and Belshazzar serve as sobering reminders that festive seasons have been the occasion of some of history's worst moral collapses — the warning is not hypotheti…

Belshazzar feasted and drank his wine, became filled with a sense of his own carnal importance, and in that very moment God declared his doom. Martin renders the divine verdict colloquially: 'You've had it, Buster. I'm going to show you what you really are.'

You remember when the judgment of God was issued against that great king, Belshazzar? It's while he feasted and drank his wine that he was filled with a sense of his own carnal importance, and God says, You've had it, Buster. I'm going to show you what you really are.

37:28 - 37:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Mothers with a reputation for excellent hosting should guard against allowing the desire to maintain that reputation from becoming a form of sinful anxiety that weighs down the heart during the holiday season.

Martin points out that the word for 'cares of this life' in Luke 21:34 (noun form) is the same Greek root as 'anxious' when Christ said 'Martha, Martha, thou art anxious about many things.' The holiday hostess obsessed with preparations faces the same heart-danger Martha did.

here it's in the noun form. Remember, it says, Our Lord had to speak to Martha and say, Martha, Martha, thou art anxious. That's the word about many things, the cares of this life. You see, the Lord knows that the heart cannot be occupied with two totally demanding masters at the same time.

38:59 - 39:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Mothers with a reputation for excellent hosting should guard against allowing the desire to maintain that reputation from becoming a form of sinful anxiety that weighs down the heart during the holiday season.

Martin addresses mothers known for their hosting excellence, noting that the temptation to maintain that reputation during the holiday season can become the specific form that 'cares of this life' takes — with the risk of losing spiritual ground over two weeks of festive season.

And what is mammon? The God of things. Now, I'm speaking to some of you moms now. You've got a reputation for really spreading a table.

39:29 - 39:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Go to bed on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve with your mind dwelling on the wonder of the gospel rather than filled with logistical anxiety about tomorrow's preparations.

Martin contrasts two kinds of Christmas Eve bedtime: the believer whose mind flows to the wonder that God sent His Son for the likes of him, versus the person whose mind is all filled with agitation about getting the jello salad done at the right time. 'My friend, you've forgotten the words of the Lord.'

Instead of pillowing my head New Year's Eve or Christmas Eve with thoughts of the wonder that I'm going to have next year, that God should send His Son for the likes of me if I go to bed with my mind all filled with agitation and anxiety as to how I'm going to get that jello salad done at such and such a time to get it out of the fridge and get something else in. My friend, you've forgotten the words of the Lord.

41:27 - 41:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin treats Christ's second command — watchfulness that drives to prayer — noting that the only reason a Christian stops praying is that he has stopped watching. He addresses…

Martin observes that if the world can conform a believer to its mold for even two weeks out of the year, it is happy for two weeks — because there is then no light in the believer's presence to expose its darkness.

And if the world can only conform you to its mold for even two weeks out of the year, it's happy for two weeks. It can be peaceful in your presence because there's no light to expose its darkness.

43:23 - 43:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: That ye may prevail to escape, that's negative, and to stand before the Son of Man, that's positive. In other words, the Lord says the issue at stake is salvation, my friends.

Martin invokes Matthew 24's 'as in the days of Noah' and the Sodom judgment to characterize the world whose total preoccupation with the temporal, carnal, and sensual makes it vulnerable to sudden judgment — the very pattern the watching, praying believer must not replicate.

The world whose perspective is not to be explained in terms of anticipating His return. The world of Noah as it was in the days of Noah. Total preoccupation with the temporal, the carnal, and the sensual as it was when God took Lot out of Sodom.

47:30 - 47:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Apply a practical self-examination test periodically throughout the holiday season: is what I am doing right now making the world to come less real or less desirable? If yes, stop and back off.

Martin gives a concrete self-examination test: periodically ask during the holiday season — is what I am doing right now making that world upon which all my hopes are set less real or less desirable? If so, back off, whatever it is.

Ask yourself, try to do it periodically, how much football you're watching on New Year's Day. Is what I'm doing right now making that world upon which all my hopes are set, toward which all my aspirations flow, is it making that world less real or less desirable? If it is, you better back off. Whatever you're doing.

49:47 - 50:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Pursue sanctified festivity — feast with brothers and sisters in a way that allows Christ to be naturally central in conversation, viewing the gathering as a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Martin paints a positive vision of sanctified holiday festivity: feasting with brothers and sisters in Christ can be seen as a little earnest of the great feast to come, with Christ naturally central in conversation even in the most light-hearted, sanctified laughter — 'holy laughter amidst holy friends who are on their way to the holy city.'

You better back off, whatever you're doing. But if with a conscience void of offense, you can feast, and your mind can flow to that time when you're going to be carried to that great feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb. If you're feasting with brothers and sisters in particular, if you can look at that as sort of a little earnest of the feast to come. And if at any point it would be natural for the Lord himself to be absolutely central in conversation, and if at any point it would be natural for the Lord himself to be absolutely central in conversation, and if at any point it would be natur...

50:14 - 51:06 Read in full sermon