Personal Holiness and Christlikeness, Part 2

Introduction: The Challenge of Lifelong, Conscientious Pursuit of Holiness

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Wednesday afternoon, October 20th, 2010, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, during the Trinity Baptist Annual Pastors Conference. The preacher is Pastor Albert N. Martin.

0:18 One of the great blessings of a conference like this, when one has more than one address to give, is that we don't have to fear the amount of leakage that goes on with our people from week to week. There's a whole week between the Lord's Days in which, if we're doing consecutive preaching or building a structure of topical expository messages, we have to assume there's been considerable leakage, our reviews have to be extensive, etc. But I hope there was not too much leakage, if anything, in the past 35 minutes. I sought to persuade your conscience

1:02 that pursuing personal holiness and likeness to Christ ought to be a primary ministerial passion. And I attempted to do that by setting forth a biblical and theological basis for that assertion. In summary, I stated that that that basis was nothing more and nothing less than the purpose and activity of the Triune God in redemptive grace. Now, in this hour, it's my purpose to follow on from the last hour by asserting a second challenge.

1:47 I've stated it in your notes as a thesis, and it is this. We ought to pursue personal holiness, and likeness to Christ as a primary ministerial passion by means of a conscientious, consistent, and lifelong engagement in those means ordained by God to produce this holiness and likeness to Christ. And in a very real sense, this is simply an expansion of what I preached on Monday,

2:26 this is how to work on to completion your salvation with fear and trembling, particularly as a minister of the gospel who is pursuing personal holiness and likeness to Christ as a primary ministerial priority. Now, I've used the word conscientious, and I know when people do a parody on me, they say, that's Pastor Mark. When you use the word, then he gives you the definition. Well, if I'm remembered for some things, I don't think that's the worst thing to be remembered for.

3:05 Now, by choosing the word conscientious, what do I mean? Well, conscientious is defined as, quote, that which is governed by or done according to what one knows is right, scrupulous, showing care and perseverance, precision, and that's the word I want in my thesis, that we must pursue this holiness by means of a conscientious use of these means. Consistent is defined as, quote, holding always to the same principles or practice.

3:48 We're dealing with things that will be true of us throughout the entirety of our pilgrimage until we cross the border. Until we cross the border. Until we cross the border. Until we cross the border.

3:56 Until we cross the border. Until we cross the border. Until we cross the border. Until we cross the border.

3:57 Until we cross the river. Or we are blessedly surprised by the sight of a returning Lord amidst the clouds and the trumpet of God and the voice of the archangel. And I've used the word lifelong in order to underscore the fact that our commitment to our engagement of these things as God-ordained means must become the settled patterns of life until we're called to the Lord. We've matured enough to be done with looking for some new magic bullet.

4:35 There ain't none, so don't look for what ain't there. And so I've put lifelong. I'm 76 years of age. If the Lord spares me in two years, I will have been 60 years within the orbit of grace.

4:53 Applied grace. For eternity I've been within the orbit of grace. But applied grace. And I find that at this stage in my life, the fundamental battles and the key to any progress are basically exactly the same when God got hold of a pimply-faced 18-year-old kid and changed him by His grace.

5:18 And it's a wonderful thing to get beyond thinking there's going to be some key to something easier, simpler, more productive. No. God has embedded in His Word those means by which He works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure, increasingly conforming us to His beloved Son. And so this is what went into my thinking in coming up with this thesis.

Means 1: Feeding Our Souls Upon the Bible

5:48 The biblically warranted means to pursue and fulfill the challenge. Number one. And some of you will think, I can't believe it. That old man is telling us we've got to read our Bibles.

6:01 You bet your boots I'm telling you that. Because I had to tell myself that this morning. The rationalization started with me at 6 o'clock or 10 minutes to 6 this morning. You've got to preach two sermons.

6:20 The Lord will understand if you don't go to your Bible first to meet with me. I'm a...

6:27 understanding Heavenly Father. You can go right to your desk to review your notes. That's what my wretched remaining sins said to me this morning.

6:42 Now you're wondering, did you give in? By the grace of God, no.

6:49 No.

6:52 I've given up thinking the war's going to be engaged on some new front. And so my first exhortation is, my brothers, if we are to grow in personal holiness, ongoing likeness to Christ, we must be committed to feeding our souls upon our Bibles simply as Christian men with no conscious thought, no conscious thought of finding and preparing food for our people. Now we will always, to one degree or another, be finding and gathering food for them. As our souls flourish, it will spill over

7:37 for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So I've used the term with no conscious thought of finding and preparing food for our people. And I've left you a string of text. You can make the correction in your notes.

7:53 Either I left out or the Secretary left out the seven. It's John 17, 17. Where our Lord in His Holy Name, in His high priestly prayers, prays those familiar words to His Heavenly Father. Sanctify them in the truth.

8:12 Sanctify them in the realm of the operation of the truth. Well, where is that truth to be found? Thy Word is truth. And we go to Psalm 1 as an extended exposition of John 17, 17.

8:30 Oh, the blessedness, of that man who does not walk in the counsel, the advice of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, sit in the seat of scoffers, but, that's what he doesn't do. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And in His law, He meditates. Day and night, He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.

8:57 The one who's going to be the flourishing tree with green leaves even when it's not fruit-bearing time. There's freshness. There's life. He's the one who meditates in the law of God, not primarily to portion it out to others, but for the nourishment of His own walk with His God.

9:21 And then, the 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 passage. Often it's quoted in terms of the people of God in general, but that's not, that's not the focus of the language of the text. Timothy, you have known the function of Scripture leading you to salvation through faith in Christ, but Scripture has another function for you, Timothy. All Scripture is inspired of God and also profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, or instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

10:06 I charge you in the sight of God, preach that word. What word? Timothy. That word which is continually operative in you to make you complete, furnishing you to every good work.

10:21 Now we know from the analogy of Scripture, it's profitable for the people of God in general, but that's not the focus of this text. Timothy, you must be, be continually in touch with the Scriptures for you to be taught, for you to be reproved, for you to be corrected, for you to be instructed in the path of practical righteousness and godliness. And then I love Jeremiah 15, 16. Thy words were found and I did exegete them.

11:01 No, thy words were found and I did exegete them. No, thy words were found and I did outline them. No, thy words were found and I did illustrate them. No, thy words were found and I did eat them.

11:17 And thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. And then that marvelous text, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, but we all, not just apostles, but all of us, community, beholding as in a mirror of the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that image from one stage of glory to another, feeding upon our Bible simply as Christian men, coming particularly to the gospel records to behold with the steady gaze of the soul our blessed Lord Jesus, to see Him

12:01 as He relates to others, as He reacts to opposition, as He penetrates into the consciences of men with His words and with His messages. And as we gaze upon Him in loving adoration, the Holy Spirit is doing something in us. Holy Spirit says, that's what you're going to be like fully someday. And I'm working on you now to take you there.

12:29 As we behold, we are being transformed into that same image from one stage of glory to another. I ask you, my brothers, do you have consistent, structured plans for working through the entirety of Scripture over a given course of time? I'm not saying do you read through your Bible in a year, two years. I'm asking you, do you have a fixed plan to which you, consistently commit yourself and you may from time to time alter the plan so you don't get in a rut?

13:10 Like one old man of God said to me, brother, he spoke like that. You know what a rut is? I said, I'm not sure. Let me tell you.

13:19 It's nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out.

13:23 And he's right. So we may alter the plan every few years, but sitting here today, do you know where you are in your Old Testament devotional reading? Do you know where you are in your New Testament devotional reading? Can you tell where you were six months ago?

13:40 Do you have any method to check up on yourself? I find a lead pencil with dates coming off the end of it. It's a wonderful reality check. I say, oh my, two days have gone and I haven't read my chapter in the New Testament.

13:57 Three days have gone and I've missed my Old Testament. And it's a wonderful way to keep me honest with you. I keep myself. Our remaining sin is no different in kind than our reigning sin.

14:10 And the reigning sin in an unconverted man is that deceitful heart that's desperately wicked. And though sin's dominion has been broken, the remnants of that in your remaining sin, you're constantly conning yourself. I'm constantly conning myself and keeping a record that I might know that I'm not alone, that I'm not alone, that I'm not alone, that I'm not alone, that I'm not alone, that I'm not alone, that I'm not alone, that I'm not alone, that I am exposing my mind, my spirit, my heart, my whole being to that which Jesus is praying will be the instrument of my sanctification. How can I pray, make me a more holy man and slap the hand that holds out the instrument?

14:52 Thy word is truth. So, my brethren, I urge you, if you have not or if in the past you have and you've allowed other pressures to crowd in you, to crowd in upon it, if there is to be any valid pursuit of personal holiness in likeness to Christ, we must feed our souls upon the Bible simply as Christian men with no conscious thought of feeding others. Secondly, we must determine to maintain the habit and the spirit of secret prayer. And again, I've chosen the words deliberately.

Means 2: Maintaining the Habit and Spirit of Secret Prayer

15:33 Few men, can maintain the habit, I'm sorry, the spirit of secret prayer if they're not committed to the habit of secret prayer. For if you have a day of dullness and you're not determined to come back to the same place to pray tomorrow in spite of the memory of the dullness, after three days you won't be coming to that place at all unless you habituate yourself to the secret place. And our Lord surely assumes that His people will be habituated to secret prayer when you pray. Not if, when you pray.

16:13 Enter your closet, shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret. Luke 18.1 Men ought, a particle of necessity, men ought always to pray and not to faint. The Lord understands that we easily, have fainting fits when it comes to consistency in prayer.

16:40 And He says, we ought to pray and not to faint. And surely, few things will keep up our commitment to the habit of secret prayer more effectively than the remembrance it is our gospel duty to pray. Now, some of you have had this experience. You do something for your wife and she says, now dear, did you do that because it was your duty or because you loved me?

17:10 You know what my standard answer is? What God hath joined together let no man or woman put asunder.

17:19 Yes, I did it because it was my duty. I'm under a solemn duty to love you as Christ loved the church and to love you as I love myself. I did this out of a beautiful but joyful obedience to my Lord. So don't ask me to do that.

17:37 Ask me to separate what God has joined and what the Holy Spirit has joined in my heart. My desire and commitment to duty no matter what I feel like but duty that often is our delight.

17:53 Habituate yourself to the secret place but don't be content that you've kept up your habit. You're in the secret place. Go through your unwritten but very real rosary of the things you know you should pray for without any sense that in any way you've really engaged God. Surely those verses that say praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit means something other than simply saying our prayers.

18:26 And when Jude says in Jude 20 that we are to pray in the Holy Spirit as well as keep ourselves in the love of God. If there's a praying in the Spirit there must be a praying out of the Spirit. And we have the wonderful promise if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. I learned to ask the Holy Spirit to give me prayers to pray years ago when my dear Jonathan Pastor Ashfield Blaze was co-pastor at Trinity.

19:09 And we would meet every Friday afternoon to pray and I'll never forget again and again when my brother would pray he would say Oh Lord give us the prayers to pray. I thought that was something I never thought along those lines. He was conscious that there were prayers that came from God and went back to God by the enabling grace and power and direction of the Holy Spirit. So brethren I urge you that if you are going to grow in true gospel holiness and in likeness to Christ you and I must take seriously the injunction

19:53 of 1 Thessalonians 5.17 Pray without ceasing or in the language of Hebrew 4.16 we must find delight in coming boldly to the throne of grace and I love those two words that we may obtain and find. There's obtaining and finding at that throne and the confidence there is draws me to that throne.

20:20 There are things to obtain and things to find. Absenting myself from the throne I will not obtain them. I will not find them. James 4.2

20:32 You have not for one simple reason. He doesn't say because God decreed to keep you impoverished. No, you have not because you ask not. Brothers it's no simple thing to maintain the habit and the spirit of prayer but we must at all cost seek to do so.

Means 3: Maintaining a Biblically Instructed, Tender, Non-Accusing Conscience

20:58 Otherwise this matter of growing likeness to Christ and growth in gospel holiness will be arrested. Then thirdly and here I want to park for a little longer if we would grow in true holiness and likeness to Christ we must be committed to maintaining a biblically instructed tender blood washed non-accusing conscience before God and before men. We must we must maintain a biblically instructed tender blood washed

21:42 non-accusing conscience towards God and man. And one of the texts that has been if someone were to ask me what are the ten texts that more than any others have shaped your life through your nearly sixty years of pilgrimage I would answer without hesitation one of them is Acts 24 and verse 16 in the message in the midst of the apostle giving his defense before a pagan ruler Paul says this Acts 24 16 in the light of the coming resurrection of the just and the unjust herein or on this account

22:25 I also exercise myself whatever Paul's going to tell us he says I am engaged in a conscious spiritual discipline he uses the word exercise which would be one of those athletic terms it speaks of rigorous discipline of some kind well in what does he submit himself to this rigorous spiritual discipline he tells us herein I also exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and men

23:08 always he was committed that at any given point in any given set of circumstances he would have a conscience void of offense that's what I've tried to capture in the words a non-accusing conscience now granted the voice of conscience is not infallible but its authority is always ultimate its authority is always ultimate though its understanding may be very limited so when Paul is dealing with believers who have a different conscience about oh shall I

23:52 eat that particular food or shall I drink that particular beverage he speaks of those who have a strong conscience that is a well-instructed conscience those who have a lesser instructed conscience are the weak but he says whatsoever is rightly not of faith if conscience says that's a no-no even though in reality objectively it's not a no-no it's a yes-yes to a well-instructed conscience the voice of conscience is ultimate whatsoever is not of faith is sin happy is the man who condemns not himself in that which he allows you violate conscience and you condemn yourself that's why

24:37 I've used the term a non-accusing conscience I've tried to capture the biblical strands of thought in the words chosen but now how important is this matter of the maintenance of a non-accusing conscience before God and man well I want to answer that by having you turn with me to 1st Timothy 1st Timothy chapter 1 Paul says in verse 5 the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart

25:20 and a good conscience and faith unfeigned as he's charging Timothy to maintain purity of doctrine at Ephesus and to expose and get rid of those who were floating error called a different doctrine he says the end in view is not to have a bunch of theological purists truth produces holiness untruth or error is not to have leads to ungodliness the end in view in the maintenance of pure doctrine is that the people of God will be exercising love out of a pure heart maintaining

26:04 a good conscience and real genuine sure enough bona fide unfaked faith that's the end in view the end of the maintenance of truth and pure doctrine is purity of life and part of that is the maintenance of a good conscience now what happens when people give up a good conscience he tells us later on in this very chapter verse 18 this charge I commit unto you my child Timothy according to the prophecies which led the way to you that by them you may war the good warfare holding faith and

26:49 a good conscience then the relative pronoun which in number and gender it's not plural applies to conscience so we can translate it legitimately holding faith and a good conscience which thing some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith they seem to be holding the faith but when they thrust away a good conscience they eventually thrust away the faith in other words you can't

27:33 be comfortable with God's truth which is kata according to godliness Titus 1 1 unless your feet are planted in the way of godliness and you can't have them planted in the way of godliness without maintaining a good conscience give up a good conscience thrust that aside because truth is constantly saying conscience is condemning there is such a thing as sin there's an ethical and moral aberration in your life that needs to be corrected and you can only stand that accusing conscience so long it either drives you to get rid of it god's way you go to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness

28:17 you confess the sin to the man or woman congregation against whom you've sinned and you maintain a good conscience or you thrust it aside still holding to your orthodoxy but after a while the truth which is according to godliness is such you can't continue to hold it to your breast because it's constantly pinching that accusing conscience and so eventually you find reason to give up the truth in order to find some kind of peace to your troubled conscience that's what happens that's why john owen perceptively said i'll never forget the first time i read it's not a verbatim quote but this is the gist

29:00 he said when a man can stand in the pulpit and preach the word of god that truth which is according to godliness while knowingly having a conscious controversy in an ethical issue registering in his conscience when he can't preach in the midst of that preach over it and around it in spite of it he said that is to put oneself on the high road to apostasy that scared the liver out of me i said god i don't want to be wreckage along the way and he says my son

29:44 then you live like paul did to have always a conscience void of offense toward god and to have towards man to be able to say with the apostle paul first corinthians four four i know nothing against myself yet am i not hereby ultimately justified for he that justifies me ultimately is the lord i know that paul knew it but he could say i know nothing against myself why because he said at all times i know nothing because i live to have a conscience void of offense

30:29 to god and to man that means brethren when out of nowhere that thought of envy sweeps into your mind and grabs your soul it's not broken out in speaking evil of the object of your envy it's not broken out in any form of ill will and speak the minute you say oh lord jesus i'm not cleansed my heart of that foul wretched hellish spirit of envy and your conscience is at rest because you have the promise if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us

31:13 from all unrighteousness and when under the pressures of the ministry your wife comes with some piddling little thing as far as you're concerned and you respond with an irritated word you're you don't go back up in your study or out and make that call until you've turned to her and said dear i responded in a way that was unchristlike and i'm grieved and i've asked god's forgiveness will you forgive me not mumbling under your breath as you go out to do i'm sorry dear what's i'm sorry do that just tells me how you feel there's a man sitting here when his kids would come and say dad i'm sorry he said that's interesting i'm hungry

31:57 you're sorry i'm hungry you're telling me how you feel i'm telling you how i feel what do you mean well you know what i mean no i don't know what you mean well dad i i come on tell me well i i i shouldn't have done that so what was that that was wrong yeah what is wrong well that was sin oh so you're asking me to forgive you for sinning against me well yes i freely forgive you and brethren i know there are people through the years that have said you know you've got an overly sensitive conscience you've got an overly sensitive well i'd rather be accused of having an overly sensitive than a hardened conscience that puts me on the high road to apostasy it's meant at

32:42 times having to eat crow feet and all before hundreds of people can i ever forget the time when this building was not yet constructed only that phase one and i was leading a morning service and i gave out the wrong hymn and in my embarrassment i conjured up a lie as easy as breathing and i said excuse me for that was a hymn for tonight and i inadvertently we were singing the hymn and my conscience is screaming my son you've lied to cover your shame and embarrassment you've lied you're going to try to

33:25 preach as a liar you've got to acknowledge that lie to the people but lord there are visitors here and what but but but but but but but dear people of god before we come to the scriptures i must confess to you so many minutes ago i lied to you in the special presence of christ in his presence will you forgive me now do i say that to brag no i'm ashamed i can still lie instinctively but if i've offended man and i'm going to look him in the eye and expect the spirit

34:09 of god to own my life labor with grip and power i've got to have a conscience void of offense to man as well as to god the other day i try to read the local my wife kids me i call it the local grand rapids press their little mickey mouse paper you can read through from beginning to end in about 20 minutes anything worth reading in it but i still keep up on the sports page they just have little footnotes about the new york teams but everything's the detroit teams and i was reading about that monday night game between the minnesota vikings and the jets because i'd still have some interest of the new york teams

34:52 and in it they said far through a an interception right at the end of the game that blew it maybe he was distracted because of his present scandal i said i've been so out of touch things i don't know what the present scandal what's what kind of scandal is far involved in well for a man who basically is a man who's ignorant about a lot of things with computers i knew enough to go on the internet i have my filters i have my covenant eyes accountability and all the rest and i went to some sports site and lo and behold when it started to talk about far of such and such an article by such and such a man and such a paper and i clicked on and there

35:36 in front of my eyes was like a page out of playboy or hustler magazine and i said i clicked the delete shut it down and said oh god forgive me for my mental voyeurism that even wanted to find out what was scandalous in brett farve who wants to know there's something in my heart that wants to feed on the carrying of brett farve's moral then degenerate actions i said oh god forgive me cleanse me that my eyes even saw for a millisecond what they

36:17 saw i left my study with a good conscience i'm able to stand before you with a good conscience it was sin to even desire to know if it was scandalous if it distracted a professional football player it wasn't anything piddling what do i want to know paul says it is a shame even to speak of the things done by them and i'm in secret if i was more sensitive to my bible i would say leave brett farve to his scandalous sins albert martin has no part in

36:58 it it's not easy to live with a conscience void of offense to god and man but it is precious to be able to say i know nothing against myself and i'm saying to you my brothers if you would grow in true biblical holiness and likeness to christ what does he say i do always the things that please my father he that says he abides in him ought to walk as he walked will never be what he was but

37:42 he is our standard and we want to be able to say i click this site because i know it will be pleasing to my father i refuse to be able to say i click this site because i refuse to be able to say i click this site because i refuse to be able to say i click this site because i know though no one else will know what i click it would be displeasing to my father and by his grace i am committed to maintain a biblically instructed tender blood washed non-accusing conscience towards god and

Application of Conscience: Computer Use, Marital Communication, and Bodily Stewardship

38:24 towards man now my brothers and sisters i'm i must get specific and i want to ask you with judgment day honesty can you sit here this morning and say i have a non-accusing conscience with what i do and don't do with my computer i would be surprised if god gave me omniscience for ten seconds that i would not discover that there is perhaps more than one man sitting here who's on that horrible mission and who's on the evil treadmill you've allowed yourself to be sucked in to the kind of stuff with which the devil sought to suck me in the

39:08 other day and you've acknowledged your sin and you've wept and you vowed but the hook was in you and you've gone back and you felt filthy and you've wept and you've confessed and you vowed but the hook went deeper and you've going to be overcome and you've You've gone back to it, and you felt filthy, and you've wept, and you've confessed, and you've vowed, but you sit here this morning with some level of addiction to uncleanness.

39:44 I beg you with all of my heart, don't leave this conference until you seek out a brother and get that thing out of the dark. If ever there was a sin that needs a literal application of James 5.16, it's this kind of sin, even among preachers. Confess your sins one to another. Pray one for another.

40:17 Accountability at the human level, for some reason, is critical. You have wept, you have prayed, you have vowed, but it hasn't worked, has it? Because you're still keeping it in the shade and under the dark. Whatsoever is manifest is light.

40:36 He that does the truth comes to the light. And you need that added light of accountability and perhaps other steps that you'll be able to stand in your pulpit in this mad age of addiction to electronic gadgetry and tell your people there is a path of integrity. And uprightness in the use or non-use of all of this gadgetry. And do it with a good conscience before God and before men.

41:12 The manner in which you speak to your wife and to your children. Would they by any stretch be able to say, I'm so glad I have your name for a husband, your kids. I'm so glad I have so-and-so for daddy. If Jesus...

41:30 ...were my husband.

41:32 If Jesus were my daddy, I think it would be something like my husband and my daddy.

41:43 Something like.

41:45 Can your wife say that? Can your children say that? They ought to be able. In one area, you'll be radically different.

41:54 You're constantly confessing your sins to your wife and to your children. Something Jesus never needed to do. But you need to do it. Perhaps.

42:03 A lot more than you do. You see, in the most secure relationships, we can become the most careless. Because we assume your wife's not going to take a ring off and throw it out the window and go out the back door. When you speak in a churlish, insensitive way.

42:22 When it's been weeks when you haven't sat down and taken her hands and said, Dear, I know I've been busy. Lots of pastoral problems. I've neglected you. I'm sorry.

42:33 Will you forgive me? We need to have a good talk. How are you doing in your devotions? How are you doing in struggling with?

42:40 And then you identify the sins that she knows and you know. And that you're working on together.

42:49 And then, brethren, I'm going to speak as well. Growing out of those clear directives of 1 Corinthians 6. Know you not your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which you have of God. And you are not your own.

43:03 You are bought with a price. Glorify God. Glorify God. Glorify God.

43:06 Glorify God. Glorify God. Glorify God. Therefore, in your body, which is His, are you glorifying God in your bodily existence?

43:16 In what you put into that body? What you do with that body? That that body might, in the will and purpose of God, get as many miles, go as far and fast and long to the glory of God? Or do you load it up with excessive calories that get accumulated into an ever-growing waistline, an ever-growing bouncing jowls?

43:44 It's pretty hard, brethren, to stand behind a pulpit and call people to a life of self-denial, self-control, when everything in your appearance says you've lost control.

43:59 Oh, yes, my metabolism. I know all about metabolism. I've got one of the slowest burners of any man on the face of the earth. My input is at the level where a lot of people would be a dietary input.

44:15 But that's the way God made me, and I need to glorify God in my body, not someone else's. Do I envy the man who can sit there and consume twice as much food and never gains an ounce? Of course I do. I hope it's not sinful envy.

44:29 I just say, man, that must be great.

44:34 But that ain't me. That's not me. And if I'm to glorify God in my body...

44:40 In my body, I must know what I must put in, what I must not put in, what I must do. All of the medical evidence in general revelation is incontrovertibly clear about the benefits of intense cardiovascular exercise. We are called to a fundamentally sedentary life behind our desks, sitting in our elders' meetings. God didn't make this heart and this cardiovascular...

45:10 system to remain healthy in that kind of lifestyle. And we live in a day when we don't have to go out and gather the wood and chop the wood and haul the water in from a well and many of the other things that gave preachers in old days all the cardiovascular exercise they needed.

45:31 Brethren, if any group of men should manifest in their general physical appearance a disciplined, self-denying self... self-controlled life with respect to the care of the body, it's the servants of God.

45:48 In nothing giving offense, let the ministry be not blamed. Obesity is a national sin. The statistics are clear. Suppose you lived in a community where the prevailing sin was abusive alcohol.

46:04 Everybody went around staggering and their speech was a little bit funny. And they had...

46:11 They had bloody, bleary eyes. It was patent in the way they spoke. You got up close enough to smell their breath, the way they walked. It was the dominant sin in that community.

46:25 Would you not, as a Christian, by your clear eyes, your steady gait, your articulate speech, just being an ordinary human being with clear eyes, good breath, steady gait, let those... Let those people know I march to the beat of a different drum.

46:49 You see my application? We live in a community called America, where obesity and carelessness in the concern of the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's all over the place. Sit in an airport and just watch people bounce and jiggle by.

47:11 Dear brothers, I plead with you. Take seriously...

47:15 Take seriously what you are as temple of the Holy Spirit and what it is to have a good conscience when you look at what you see in front of the mirror when you're stepping out of your pajamas and going in for your shower.

47:33 Well, I've delivered my soul on that issue. I prayed, Lord, I don't want to be unkind. I don't want to be ungracious. But brethren, our consciences need to be conditioned by the Word of God, and the Word of God says, glorify God in your body, which is His.

Means 4: Waging Merciless Warfare with Remaining Sin

47:54 But then I move on quickly. Where are we time-wise? Oh, my.

48:01 Let me just give you the heads. We must be committed to waging a merciless warfare with remaining sin. The old Puritans were right. Sanctification is negatively mortification, positively vivification, putting sin to death, putting on Christ, putting on, growing in the graces of the Spirit.

48:27 And I've used the term a merciless warfare because that's the language Jesus uses. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and then don't let it just hang on your cheek and stick it back in. He says, pluck it out and cast it from you. If your hand offend you, cut it off, and don't just leave it there waiting for some kind of exotic spiritual microsurgery to reattach it.

49:03 Cut it off and cast it from you. And what's the issue at stake? It is better to enter life maimed than having two hands, two eyes, to go into hell. It's mortify or die.

49:20 Brethren, are we waging? A real, merciless warfare with our remaining sin. You know the text, Romans 8.13, if you by the Spirit put to death, and Owen has so masterfully opened up that text, we do it, but we do it by the Spirit, and the Spirit brings us into the orbit of redemptive privilege and power.

49:48 So we do it, but we do it by the Spirit. The Spirit. The Spirit. The Spirit who testifies of Christ, who enables us to draw out of Christ the riches of who and what we are as men in union with Christ.

Means 5: Consciously Cultivating Christ-like Graces of Character

50:04 Then we must consciously cultivate Christ-like graces of character. The texts are all there. Consciously cultivate them. Where do I get that language?

50:14 Peter says, adding on your part all diligence. Add to your faith. Diligence. It's the fruit of the Spirit, but I must be diligent in the cultivation of those graces.

50:30 Read through Galatians 5, 23 and 4, and say, Lord, help me to see which of the ninefold fruit are nubby and hard, which ones are at least beginning to flesh out and become full. And don't just ask the Lord and search your heart. Sit down with your wife. And say, sweetheart, when you read this list, where do you see something?

50:57 Start by encouraging me, dear. Where do you see some fruit that's more than just a tad beyond the nubby little thing that follows after the blossom falls? Now, dear, lay it on me. For years, my former wife and I would go off for a few days down to the shore.

51:17 Someone had a house not right on the honky-tonk shore, but the inland part, and we would have an agreement. We called. We called it our judgment days, when on a given day, she could point out anything and everything in my life that she would like to see changed and become more like Christ, and I had no power of discussion or rebuttal. I just had to listen and then pray.

51:41 The next day, I had my time in court.

Means 6: Continually Abiding in Christ

51:46 Seriously, brethren, it was most salutary, because we were able to be helpers in our pursuit of holiness, and likeness to Christ. Sixth, continually abide in Christ by appropriating faith, obedience, and word-framed prayers. There, I've tried to just capture the gist of John 15, 1 to 11. Abide in Christ by appropriating faith, feeding upon Christ, feeding upon the nourishment that flows from Him as the vine, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, we derive life and strength and grace

52:31 for a Christ-like life. And then word-framed prayers, if my word abide in you, ask what you will, it shall be done. We grow in likeness to Christ as we pray prayers framed by the Word. In my Old Testament devotions right now, in my part of my reading, which is going through the Psalms about once every nine months, I've been taking two sections of Psalm 119 each morning, and I'm using the ESV in my devotions.

53:02 I used it in 04, and I've gone back to it. And it's been a thrilling thing to, to see how again and again the psalmist is, is crying out that God would do for him what he's promised. Give me this according to your Word. Do this according to your Word.

Means 7: Conscientiously Pursuing Universal Obedience to Generic Christian Duties

53:22 Protect me according to your Word. Never do you feel more confident on praying according to the will of God when the Word of God shapes and molds and impels our prayers. And then the final thing is what I've listed in your notes, is conscientiously pursuing universal obedience to the generic duties and privileges involved in belonging to the body of Christ in which you serve as a pastor. When this is the case, when this principle came home to me very powerfully as a relatively young pastor, it revolutionized my thinking and helped me to sort out my sense of what is my duty and what is not.

54:06 The principle is this. In seeking to live a life of growing holiness and conformity to Christ, remember, God never gave you specific ministerial duties as a warrant to negate or to be careless in the performance of the broad range of generic Christian duties. What I am as the generic Christian man is the foundation of what I am to be and do as the specific ministerial man. In fact, it's my evident growth and development in the generic that makes me qualified

54:50 to assume the specific. For when we read 1 Timothy, 3, 1 to 7, Titus 1, 5 to 9, except for the one word, didactikos, apt to teach, and then able to exhort, all the other requirements are found elsewhere in the epistles of ordinary Christians. What they ought to be, I must be in those areas. It's efficiency and progress and discernible manifestation of development, in generic Christian duties and graces that qualifies me to be recognized for the specific ministerial responsibilities.

55:35 And once I assume those responsibilities, God doesn't give them to me to come with a red pen and strike out the generic. So you can have liberty to turn off your phone and give yourself to a couple of hours so your family feels, I've gotten my husband and my daughter, dad, without everybody else milking at his breasts.

56:00 It meant for me as a young pastor, we had only one phone in the house. We'd turn the phone off from 5.30 to 7.30.

56:08 I said, if someone needs the last rites, let them get another Padre. The world won't come to an end if they don't get to me. And that was before telemarketers or all the rest. It was just the principle.

56:21 My kids who see everybody having their pound of flesh from dad and my wife, of their, they needed to know we're important enough that dad marks out two hours in the evening for us. And that's when we had family worship. And that's when we danced. I remember one of the records we had was the Don Cossack, that Russian dancing group, an orchestra.

56:45 And we'd go in the living room and we'd do our own dances to the Don Cossack thing. And it doesn't take much to please the little ones. I'd take a handful of pennies and hide them under the cushions in the couch. And you kept the pennies you got.

56:59 Just thought a kid says, we've got our dad.

57:04 It was this principle that came home to me. And then when there weren't a lot of reformed churches and reformed preachers and calls came to some of us from all over the world, come here, come there. It was this principle that kept me on track. I said, look, my Bible says, fathers, nurture your children.

57:23 It doesn't say fathers, parenthesis, except if your name is Al Martin and there's a need, for people who understand reform principles. And there are a few men that preach at conferences. No, it says fathers. And I said, Albert N.,

57:36 you're a father. How can you nurture them if you're running around the country half or three quarters of the time? And some people raise eyebrows. Well, you're not being a good steward of your gifts, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

57:50 I said, here's my Bible. There's my Bible. That dictates what I do, not human expectation. So brethren, get hold of that principle.

Conclusion: The Power of Holiness in Ministry

58:01 I beg you, because it's only within that framework that you will be able to progress in gospel holiness, holiness described by the scriptures and likeness to our blessed Lord and Savior. Well, there's been kind of mishmash. I got drawn out further. And so whatever I've given you, I've given you.

58:26 And I trust there's been enough that the Lord will be pleased to grant His blessing. Let me just close with two quotes that I did have here. And I think they're in your notes.

58:40 May we take the time to memorize and pray into the texture of our inner life the memorable words of the saintly Robert Murray McShane writing to a ministerial friend. He said, and I quote, in great measure, according to the purity and perfection of the individual, instrument will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.

59:20 And I can do no better than conclude the sermon with the words of Spurgeon, who wrote, quote, holiness in a minister is at once his chief, necessity, and his goodliest ornament.

59:38 Let's pray. Father, you know us all together and how we pray that out of your perfect knowledge of us, you would have gracious, deep, real dealings with us. Whatever I have said from this pulpit this morning and into the first part of the afternoon has been mingled with the chaff of mere human thought. And the clay of human wisdom,

60:15 scour it out, blow upon the chaff. But whatever's been true to your word, Lord, write it upon our hearts, work it into our lives that our progress may be manifest unto all. Be with us then the remainder of this day. We look to you for your blessing to be upon us as we sit about the tables, enjoy your good gifts, accept our thanks for every mercy received from your hand, in Jesus' name.

60:49 Amen.