Obedience

After nineteen Lord's Day mornings contemplating the person of Christ, Pastor Martin presses one searching question on every conscience: do you love him? Working through 1 Peter 1:8 and 1 Corinthians 16:22, he shows that love to Christ is an indispensable mark of Christian character and that its absence is the infallible indication of coming judgment. He defines the essence of that love (with help from Bishop Leighton) as goodwill toward Christ, delight in Christ, and desire for Christ, traces its roots to a saving revelation of his glory and a believing reception of him, and identifies its infallible fruit as keeping his commandments.

Pastor Martin expounds the simile of Psalm 1:3 -- 'he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.' He carefully explains the Eastern agricultural background of the image, then develops the spiritual parallel: what roots near water are to a tree, constant meditation on the Word of God is to the child of God. He shows from Revelation 22, John 15, and other passages that spiritual life flows from Christ through the mediation of Scripture. The sermon covers the three blessings: fruit in season, unfading foliage as evidence of continuous life, and spiritual prosperity in all one does.