Martyn Iles

I wanted to let you know that I have carefully written a study guide for every episode of the new podcast. It's good for families (includes a kids' glossary), groups, or even individuals wanting to go deeper. It will help you get the most out of the series.

To get the guides, fill in the little form at this link: www.atthecrux.com/podcast

1 month ago | [YT] | 228

Martyn Iles

New video podcast launches this Saturday. Dropping here on YouTube, on Spotify, and other major podcast platforms.

It's been more than two years since I had a weekly podcast. I find I can't speak unless I have something to say - when something is impressed on me. Something timely. Something true.

Every episode will come with a free study guide for families, individuals and groups. Subscribe to get those through my new website - www.atthecrux.com

1 month ago | [YT] | 376

Martyn Iles

Yes, I am working on a couple of valuable new projects alongside talented colleagues, for Australia and the world (especially USA, Canada, New Zealand, UK, Singapore and South Africa).

One is something revolutionary for our children and young people. The other is the next chapter in my content ministry (including videos).

Give us some time - we're praying rather than rushing. And this is complex.

But right now, you can be part of what's next by getting my emails. I'll write to you when it matters 👉 www.martyniles.com.au

P.S. It's a way more reliable method than social media.

8 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 367

Martyn Iles

The most flagrant vulgarities and rebellions are very often by those who were once very close to the kingdom of God.

Consider, Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol to which the nations had to bow down—a direct rebellion against the word God recently spoke to him that his “kingdom of Gold” was inferior to God’s reign.

Consider, the proliferation of rabidly anti-Christ activists in politics, especially the LGBT movement, who grew up “Christian.” This was one of the most startling revelations of my time in politics.

Consider, Kanye West . . . From “Jesus is King” to . . .

If God has spoken to you, do not trifle with him. A silenced word from God is a devils playground.

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1).

11 months ago | [YT] | 487

Martyn Iles

Much is being said about love of neighbour at present, in light of migrant policies.

The illustration given by Christ himself to demonstrate love of neighbour was the parable of the Good Samaritan, provoked by the question, “Who is my neighbour?”

It is as simple as this: Your neigbour is the person in need who God has placed in your way.

To love them is to answer their need at the cost to yourself.

The Samaritan in the parable stumbled upon a man in need. He is a neighbour. No other criteria are relevant.

The Samaritan spent his time, money, concern, and convenience on this man, out of his comfort zone and assuming a degree of personal risk.

Notice: this is necessarily interpersonal. It is a command that is supposed to convict you about your own personal life, whether you prioritise your own self or live a costly life of love for those who God brings your way.

Also notice: this is not a command to the state. Who is the state’s neighbour? Other countries? Every person on earth? And, how does the state “love”? It doesn’t even spend its own money. It’s a nonsense. The command doesn’t work if applied to the wrong entity like this. It’s a category mistake.

Scripture deals with the obligations of the state separately, and they are distinct. For example, the state’s powers of punishment and justice exceed those of the individual.

To claim the state must cease from deporting convicted criminals who have entered the country illegally “because love of neighbour” is a mess of an argument.

And notice: this command is not the benchmark for your family. That is higher (e.g. consider the passages on husbands and wives). Scripture takes much more time to articulate the very weighty obligations that flow between families and other such special relationships.

For some people, when all they have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If all you have in your Christianity is “love your neighbour” then you’ve lost the rest of your toolkit and you’ll be using the wrong tool for a lot of things . . . it’s not even the starting point. That would be “love of God,” which (among many other things) will help you set all of his commands in order and obey them all.

Go, read the Good Samaritan, and don’t make it a political creed. Rather, reflect on your daily life, and love that needy or difficult person in need who God has brought across the path of your life even if it’s not easy.

11 months ago | [YT] | 633

Martyn Iles

Whose fault is it?

Coverage of the Los Angeles fires is being met with a chorus of voices asking that question and accusing various people.

It’s a sign of the times that nobody can look higher than politics. Gavin Newsom saves us from fires or leaves us to burn. The end.

But natural disasters have been called “acts of God“ for a reason.

That’s because God is never asleep at the wheel. In everything that happens, he has either done it, permitted it to happen, or he has stopped it. Everything comes down to one of those things.

“Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (Amos 3:6).

We may ask, “Why?” and one of the most important answers is given to us by Jesus in Luke 13.

A tower had fallen down, killing 18 people. He posed the question, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?” (i.e., did they deserve it more than you).

The answer? “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Watching raw footage of the fires is chilling. There is nothing quite like the horror of a fiery inferno—the roar, the wind, the heat, the destruction.

Hell is described in terms of fire. God’s judgement is described in terms of fire.

Because God is just, he will judge. All evil and sin must be done away with and burned up. But he waits and delays because he does not delight in judgement, and he seeks to save many people from it.

To that end, he lets us see warnings. These things happen, not because he desires our harm, but because he warns us of the fires to come . . . “repent, [or] you will all likewise perish.”

He wants us to think about death. He wants us to see that we are helpless without God. He wants us to survive his necessary judgement.

Judgement is good and judgement is awful.

The tragedy of the times described in Revelation is that people refuse to heed these warnings.

“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Revelation 9:20–21).

Yes, Hollywood is full of evil. But don’t think it’s necessarily because they were especially evil . . . Jesus tells you to think about your own standing before God instead.

Another kind of fire is coming. It’s good and it’s awful.

Have you repented? He’s still waiting for you.

1 year ago | [YT] | 776

Martyn Iles

“The very essence of all sin is that assertion of self as Lord, as sufficient, as the director of one’s path.

“To make myself my centre, to depend on myself, to enthrone my own will as sovereign, is to fly in the face of nature and fact, and is the mother of all sin.

“Nations and individuals are ever tempted thus to ignore God, and rebelliously to say, ‘Who is Lord over us?’ or presumptuously to think themselves architects of their own fortunes, and sufficient for their own defence. Whoever yields to that temptation has let the ‘prince of the devils’ in, and the inferior evil spirits will follow.

“Positive acts are not needed; the negative omission to ‘glorify’ the God of our life binds sin on us.”

Alexander MacLaren, comment on Daniel 5:22–23. Written some 150+ years ago but perfectly up to date in its application!

1 year ago | [YT] | 461

Martyn Iles

New Year’s Eve always reminds me that the future is unknown.

This sense of the unknown future can trouble people. I was just musing that it even troubled King Nebuchadnezzar in his sleep (Daniel 2:29).

I guess the stakes were pretty high for ancient kings. But his worries are reflected in us all to some degree. There is almost always something that is a burden or a concern.

But when Daniel addresses the matter to the king, he says something most interesting: “[God] knows what is in the darkness” (Daniel 2:22, ESV).

The thing in the dark is the thing you cannot see.

Many will know what it is to have those moments when you simply cannot see ahead. It’s out of sight. It escapes the imagination. It’s not clear. The future can be like that. Sometimes we even say, “I’m in the dark.” I.e., I can’t see it, or it hasn’t been revealed to me.

You cannot see it, but God can.

This thought is in Minnie Louise Haskins’ famous poem, The Gate of the Year:

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ 

So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.”

1 year ago | [YT] | 561

Martyn Iles

Tried is ev­ery faith­ful man,
As gold and sil­ver tried,
Purged by grief, and purged by pain,
And se­ven times pu­ri­fied:
All who stand the fie­ry test,
Receive Thine im­age from above,
Bear Thy fa­vo­rite name im­pressed,
Thy fa­vo­rite name of love.

Brought in­to the fire I am,
And Thou wilt bring me through,
I shall call up­on Thy name,
With all the crea­tures new;
I shall prove Thine ut­most word,
Brightened with Thy glo­ry, shine,
Claimed by Thee, shall claim my Lord
Through end­less ag­es mine.
–Charles Wesley

See also 1 Peter 1:3–9.

1 year ago | [YT] | 806

Martyn Iles

I see Jordan Peterson’s new series on the Gospels is billed as unpacking their “psychological significance.”

The psychological significance of the Gospels is this: that we may have peace with God because Jesus Christ has dealt with our sin and thus reconciled us to him through the things he achieved on our behalf in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

In short, we can “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

That's it.

1 year ago | [YT] | 1,287