All Natural Men Hate God

In this part of the sermon: Martin opens by emphasizing the Holy Spirit's role in bringing accurate self-knowledge through the Word. He states his central burden is to lead the congregation to see that all…

Martin describes multitudes who never experience wonder at the heavens or a beautiful flower, illustrating man's general indifference to God's lesser revelation in creation.

In Psalm 19, the psalmist celebrates this fact by exclaiming, With the burning heart of an adoring worshiper, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth his handiwork. The Apostle Paul, speaking in a similar way, but in a different way, in a different context, says that from the very creation that is about us, men know something of God's almighty power and of his godness. But the sad thing is that the vast majority of men live with little or no recognition of God's glory in his own creative handiwork. There are months, there are multitudes who go week after week, month...

2:49 - 4:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: it is Almighty God Himself who describes you and me and every man or woman by nature as a hater of God.

Martin anticipates the listener's objection that he has 'overstated the case' by calling them haters of God, comparing it to only applying the term to figures like Hitler or Madeline Murray O'Hare, to highlight the depth of self-deception.

demonstrate to you from the Word of God that you and all men by nature are haters of God. Now, I can almost hear the objections that are being voiced in your minds all the time. I'm trying to expect quite some of your opinions of England to be in the situation for which we have been. I am curious as to whether you are making it so clear that you mean well. Or else, I'm putting you at a disadvantage. But if I'm not hearing any of your opinions, or if you want to be assertive, please hear me out. I'm trying to be very inquisitive here in this sermon, and I'm asking you to give me the opportunity...

10:34 - 11:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

God's immediate commands after blessing Adam and Eve are described as 'barking orders,' emphasizing that governance by God was integral to man's created state, not an imposition.

God conferred His good will upon them. God endowed them with all that was necessary to please Him. His blessing was both an expression of His good will and a conferral of all the good things needed to please Him. But now notice, the next thing He does after blessing them, disclosing the fullness of His good will toward them, is He starts barking orders.

20:21 - 20:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

Adam's disobedience is described as 'casting off the yoke of obedience,' illustrating man's rebellion against God's rightful rule.

Chapter 2 and verse 15, And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, And so as God puts Adam into that setting in which He is to glorify God by the work of His hands, the first expression of His mind to Adam is that of an imperative. He commands the man, saying, And then according to Romans 2, verses 14 and 15, He also wrote upon Adam's heart the summary of all of his duty in what later became known as the Ten Commandments, that summary of moral law given by the voice of God upon Sinai, written by the ...

22:05 - 23:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

Martin contrasts the God who demands total love with a 'God who's there to stroke me when I scrape my knee' or 'throws some shekels at me when I'm in need,' illustrating man's desire for a convenient, non-demanding deity.

Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. He demands that He have all of our hearts. And we say, No, it's not fair. It's not fair that God should have unqualified, absolute, totalitarian rights over me.

25:37 - 25:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

Man's desire for autonomy is described as wanting 'a little room to breathe' in 'the rarefied air of doing our own thing,' illustrating the perceived freedom in rejecting God's law.

We find that cramps us. We want a little room to breathe. What we think is the rarefied air of doing our own thing. Since we see that we hate that God whose law demands such allegiance, in the Second Commandment He demands that His worship be pure and unmixed worship, that we're not free to choose how we shall worship Him.

26:32 - 26:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

Illustrates hypocritical worship where the body is in the pew but the mind is distracted, showing how God abominates insincere worship.

He dictates how He shall be worshipped, and He abominates anything less than the worship He demands, and He curses the bringing of worship that He does not mandate. In the Third Commandment He desires sincere, non-hypocritical worship. He will not accept the body plunked down in the pew, the eyes on the preacher, but the mind on the girl, four pews ahead and three seats over. He looks upon that and He abominates it.

26:56 - 27:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

God's claim on the Sabbath is depicted as Him putting 'a big red X over His day and says, Mine!', illustrating man's hatred of God's intrusion into personal time.

But we are to do what He commands us. And we show that we hate God as a lawgiver who'd have the nerve to intrude into our weekly calendar and before we even sit down and mark out the activities, He puts a big red X over His day and says, Mine! You hate a God like that. And the way you've profaned His Sabbath through all your years is an indication you hate God as a lawgiver.

28:19 - 28:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

Children learning to 'con our parents, try to manipulate our parents, buck against our parents,' illustrates the innate hatred of God's delegated authority.

And then when we turn to the last six commandments, you see the case becomes all the more convincing. If you're honest before God this morning, He says we are to keep sacred the authority of our parents. Honor thy father and thy mother, that that authority is delegated by God. And yet, one of the first things we did by instinct was to learn how to con our parents, try to manipulate our parents, buck against our parents, disobey our parents, lie to our parents, why?

28:48 - 29:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

Using one's mind on 'booze and drugs' or 'mindless TV watching' is given as an example of devaluing the gift of life and disgracing one's dignity as an image-bearer.

We're haters of the God who said, Honor thy father and thy mother. And then how little we have placed worth upon the gift of life. We have acted as though life was something we were free to do with. There's some of you sitting here who've blown your mind that precious gift of God on booze and drugs.

29:21 - 29:44 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

The act of abortion to fit 'convenient plans' or to 'take care of that little slip' is used as a stark example of devaluing life and violating God's law.

You've drugged your mind by hours of inordinate, mindless TV watching that has been a disgrace to the nobility and dignity of your life as a creature made in the image of God. You may have slain a life within your womb because that baby didn't fit into your convenient plans. Or you thought, well, you could go ahead and have sex without the commitments of marriage and just be careful, and you weren't careful enough. But you took care of that little slip by a trip to the abortion clinic and slew the life that God had implanted in the womb.

29:44 - 30:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates man's hatred of God as a lawgiver by examining the Ten Commandments. He shows how man's natural disposition rebels against God's demands for unrivaled love…

God's authority over sexual capacities is emphasized by stating He has 'sovereign rights over your genitals, over your breasts,' illustrating the extent of His claim and man's resistance.

And according to our Lord, again that commandment touches the look of the eyes, the desire of the heart, as well as what I touch with my hands. And what I may do with my genitals. Almighty God has sovereign rights over your genitals, over your breasts. Sovereign rights over your thoughts and what you look upon that is erotically stimulating.

31:09 - 31:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to see yourself as a hater of God to appreciate the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Paul's realization of his sinfulness is described as the 'hard shell of my ignorance' being broken, revealing himself to be a 'veritable pus-sack of uncleanness and sin and a hater of God,' a vivid image of total depravity.

Does one covet with his hands? With what organs of the body does one covet? Well, you see, coveting is a holy inward disposition of the heart. And he said, When I came to that discovery, then as it were, the hard shell of my ignorance of what I was was broken.

36:01 - 36:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Instead of questioning God's sovereignty, put your hand upon your mouth and submit to His rights to be God.

Man's desire for a God who is 'in the wings waiting to patch up our messes' but otherwise leaves us alone, illustrates the rejection of a truly sovereign God who orders all things.

They want him in the wings within earshot so that when things get rough and they say, Hey God! He'll be close enough to come and patch up the mess and then go off to his benign distance and leave us alone to do our own thing in the meantime till the next mess and then we can call out. They will tolerate a God in the wings waiting to come and patch up our messes. They'll tolerate a God whose crisis will be there to somehow sort out the mess or close enough to blame and say if there's a God how come this happened to me?

41:39 - 42:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Instead of questioning God's sovereignty, put your hand upon your mouth and submit to His rights to be God.

Man's questioning of God's allowance of tragedies ('Why does God allow... Vietnam War?') is presented as making God 'answerable to you,' illustrating hatred of God's sovereignty.

in the jaws of this horrible Paul's answer he says but nay you to reply against God you misunderstood me I wasn't saying that God sovereignly chose some and bypassed others you misunderstood me I wasn't saying that God's free to show mercy to some and not to others they did understand and they understood so well that they objected and showed their hatred to God as sovereign and Paul's answer is not to water down the reality of God's sovereignty but to whittle man down to size he says who are you O man shall the thing formed say to him who formed it why hate me thus in other words the only plac...

46:41 - 48:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin pivots to the gospel, proclaiming that Jesus Christ came for sinners—haters of God—like us. He details Christ's humiliation, suffering, death, and resurrection as the means…

A 'black poet's' description of the heavens shrouded in darkness during Christ's crucifixion ('darker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp') vividly portrays the Father's wrath poured out on His Son.

pray until sweat drops of blood oozed from his brow and fell to the ground. For sinners like us, willing to go to the judgment hall and be spat upon and mocked and clogged and whipped and hung between earth and heaven until the Father shrouds the heavens in inky black darkness as one black poet described it, darker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp.

58:07 - 58:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Love God as a God of grace, desiring all glory for salvation to go to Christ alone, with no 'diamond chip' in your own crown.

A believer's desire for salvation that leaves 'not one little diamond chip in my crown' but places 'all the chips and all the parts of the crown... upon the pierced head of my savior,' illustrates the desire for God to receive all glory for salvation.

And if when we describe God as a God of grace who has contrived the salvation, that secures all the glory to himself and unlimited obligations upon its recipients, if you could sit there and say, oh God, that's just the salvation I love. Lord, I don't want a salvation that leaves one little diamond chip in my crown. I want all the chips and all the parts of the crown to be upon the pierced head of my savior. Upon that brow that was scarred with thorns, that's where I'd have it to be.

62:52 - 63:30 Read in full sermon

The point: For those who cannot yet say they love God, may accurate self-knowledge be given, leading to brokenness of heart and crying out for mercy.

The enemy of souls is compared to 'fowls of the air who follow the farmer and pluck up the seed that is sown,' illustrating the devil's attempt to steal the preached Word from hearts.

May the enemy of our souls not come like the fowls of the air who follow the farmer and pluck up the seed that is sown. May that seed be enfolded in our hearts and bring forth fruit unto everlasting life. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

66:32 - 66:50 Read in full sermon