Christian Liberty

Pastor Martin completes his treatment of the corporate implications of Christ's prophetic office by warning against the opposite error from undervaluing the ministry: idolizing the ministers themselves. He uses Matthew 23, the noble Bereans of Acts 17, and Paul's command not to become bondslaves of men to plead that God's people honor the ministry of the Word without ever surrendering the right of private judgment under Scripture. The sermon urges critical, Berean-like listening that holds fast only to what is genuinely from God, lest lazy hearers be led into the tyranny that always follows uncritical attachment to human teachers.

Entering the 'period of explanation and confirmation' (the Epistles), Pastor Martin expounds Romans 14:9 as one of the clearest New Testament assertions of Christ's present kingship. He shows Paul resolving the conflict between the 'weak' and 'strong' in Rome by assuming that both have been received by God in grace and both are now under the government of Christ the King, for Christ died and rose again that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. From this he draws four principles: Christ's rule is a present reality to Him as Savior, a practical reality in every recipient of salvation, a matter of Christian growth in its working out, and a matter of life and death in its initial embrace.

Addressing the philosophy of sensualism that permeates the mass media, Pastor Martin shows from Scripture that sensual pleasure was never meant to be the basis of blessedness, that sin enters when men seek it outside God's will, and that judgment falls on those who do. He rejects both the sensualist extreme and the ascetic extreme, teaching instead that God created man's sensual capacities as good gifts to be received with thanksgiving, subjected to God's laws of glory, moderation, and purity, and regulated in light of remaining sin.