Healed by Returning

Driving home: But perhaps the most difficult kind of suffering to endure is that kind of suffering which comes to us undeserved.

Martin uses his personal experience of discomfort from a hand butchered by a surgeon to illustrate the universal distastefulness and unpleasantness of suffering, making it relatable to the audience.

I am sure every man, woman, boy, or girl would agree with me when I make this statement that suffering of any kind is both distasteful and unpleasant. Only someone sick in the head or governed by principles that totally alter one's natural response to suffering ever finds suffering anything other than distasteful and unpleasant. When we are suffering pain of any kind as a result of the general effects of sin upon the human constitution. That suffering is always distasteful and unpleasant. If I could, with a wave of the hand, take away the discomfort I have known for three and a half weeks with...

2:00 - 3:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, our straying is a matter of a clenched fist in the face of almighty God, saying, Don't mess with my life! I'm on my own!

Martin quotes a writer who describes the natural state of mankind as strayed sheep, emphasizing their state of error, want, perplexity, dissatisfaction, and danger, and their inability to improve their situation.

You know what's involved in that imagery? Most of us could live in that image. We've seen it. live and die in northern New Jersey and never see a sheep, let alone a flock of sheep, let alone some straying sheep. What's bound up in the concept that the prophet captured in Isaiah 53, 6, and that Peter seizes upon here, that you were going astray like sheep, continually. This was your pattern. Well, one writer has captured much of the essence of it when he wrote, the natural state of mankind is like that of strayed sheep. It is a state of error, of want, of perplexity, of dissatisfaction, and of ...

30:22 - 31:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, our straying is a matter of a clenched fist in the face of almighty God, saying, Don't mess with my life! I'm on my own!

Martin quotes another writer who compares sinners to straying sheep, highlighting their dullness, proneness to stray, and helplessness to return, presenting a wretched picture of the lost.

provision and protection and safety. Another has written, the comparison of sinners to straying sheep is a common biblical figure. It's not a complementary comparison, since sheep are notoriously dull, prone to stray, and helpless to find their way back. Straying sheep lost in the wilderness or mountains and exposed to wild beasts and destruction present a wretched picture of the needy state of the lost.

31:59 - 32:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin then portrays the glorious present state of believers: they are now returned, a passive action brought about by Christ, to a personal relationship with Him as the Shepherd…

Martin references Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' sermon on Ephesians 2:4, "But God," to emphasize the significance of the adversative 'but' in Scripture, highlighting the transformative power of God's intervention.

astray. Like sheep. But, bless God for the buts of Scripture. Any of you ever heard Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' sermon from Ephesians 2-4? But, God. A whole sermon structure around that blessed but. And our text says you were going astray like sheep. But, but, here is the glorious portrayal of their present. But are now. And that little particle now is precious. But are now is what you are right now. And whatever grace has mapped out for you in that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away, or what he refers to in verse 9 of chapter 1, waiting for that salvation ready to be re...

35:24 - 36:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin then portrays the glorious present state of believers: they are now returned, a passive action brought about by Christ, to a personal relationship with Him as the Shepherd…

Martin uses the analogy of children carrying books (active) versus books being returned (passive) to explain the grammatical difference between active and passive verbs, illustrating that believers are 'returned' by another's agency.

reveal that there is a passive verb. You are now returned. It doesn't say you have now returned yourself, but you are now returned. Now you children know the difference between an active and a passive verb, don't you? If I say, the children, you are now returned.

36:40 - 36:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin directly addresses unbelievers, challenging them to confront their spiritual sickness and constant straying from God, warning of the eternal consequences of remaining lost…

Martin quotes an 18th-century preacher who vividly describes the multitude of corrupt principles, blindness, unbelief, hardness of heart, inordinate affections, lust, malice, envy, covetousness, pride, and self-conceit that constitute spiritual sickness.

But you are sick. You want to hear an 18th century preacher tell you what your sickness is? If we're a large task to name our spiritual maladies, how much more severally to unfold their natures? Such a multitude of corrupt, false principles in the mind which has gathered gangrene spread themselves through the soul and defiled the whole man.

52:01 - 52:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Cry to God to show you how sick you are until nothing matters but being returned to Christ, the great physician and shepherd.

Martin quotes A.W. Tozer, who toward the end of his life declared his own heart to be the ugliest, most detestable thing he had ever seen, illustrating the profound self-awareness of spiritual sickness.

I shall never forget when the godly, gracious, wonderful man of God, A.W. Tozer, toward the end of his life said this, In my life I have seen many ugly, ugly things, but the ugliest, most detestable thing I've ever seen is my own heart. My unconverted friend, you're sick.

53:38 - 54:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Cry to God to show you how sick you are until nothing matters but being returned to Christ, the great physician and shepherd.

Martin uses the biblical metaphor of 'wandering stars' from Jude and the scientific concept of 'black holes' to paint a frightening picture of the eternal state of a lost soul, emphasizing endless blackness.

One of the most frightening pictures of the eternal state of a lost soul found anywhere in the Bible is in the book of Jude, where it says they are wandering stars to whom is reserved blackness forever. You've heard of the black holes? You've heard of the black holes that the astronomers talk about? God says your soul will be swallowed up in an endless black hole. Why? Why? Why do you go on?

55:34 - 56:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord for mercy and pardon.

Martin describes God in Isaiah 55 taking the role of a street hawker, inviting everyone who thirsts to come and buy wine and milk without money, illustrating God's gracious and free invitation to salvation.

one? He who says these things have been preached unto you in the gospel. You've heard the same message you've heard this morning, that God has sent his only begotten Son, and that in the sufferings of Jesus, righteous recompense has been made to the law of God, that he might be just and the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. I close with the language of that same prophet, who having opened up the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah in chapter 53, prophesies in chapter 54 that as a result of his sufferings, the people of God will be expanded throughout the earth. And then in chapter 55, Go...

57:59 - 58:56 Read in full sermon