Reasons to Take up This Study, Part 1

The point: Read 1 Corinthians 13 in preparation for the evening study.

Martin explains his use of the modern idiom 'Are you for real?' despite his aversion to bad English, because it effectively registers the seriousness of the question in people's minds.

Now beginning this morning and continuing God willing through August the 7th, I plan to bring seven messages focusing on the very sobering and all important question couched in the modern idiom, are you for real? I know that's bad English and everything in me revolts against using certain modern idioms that are bad English would be considered vulgarisms, but if they are not coarse and if they do not in any way denigrate the sacredness of the things we handle, there are times when common modern idioms, though ungrammatical and composed of poor English,

2:24 - 3:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Shut yourself in with sanctified self-centeredness to experience the intensely individual nature of judgment.

He compares the intensely individual and lonely experience of judgment day to being born and dying as an individual, emphasizing the personal nature of accountability to God.

but to make it intensely personal, am I for real? Am I for real? And I want you to attempt to shut yourself in with as much sanctified self-centeredness as you will be forced to experience in the day of judgment. For though the scriptures describe that awesome day as a day in which all of the nations shall be gathered before the throne of his glory, in which the grave shall give up all the dead that are in it.

4:40 - 5:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There are people that are going to drop into hell from the pews and the membership role of Trinity Baptist Church. Because they are not sowing to the Spirit. They are sowing unto the flesh.

Martin uses the vivid image of people 'dropping into hell from the pews and the membership role of Trinity Baptist Church' to underscore the danger of self-deception in the church.

Don't be deceived. There are people that are going to drop into hell from the pews and the membership role of Trinity Baptist Church. Because they are not sowing to the Spirit. They are sowing unto the flesh.

16:58 - 17:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There are people that are going to drop into hell from the pews and the membership role of Trinity Baptist Church. Because they are not sowing to the Spirit. They are sowing unto the flesh.

He contrasts human-made lists of sins (which might exclude covetousness) with God's list, warning that in judgment, people will meet God's list, not their own, to highlight the danger of minimizing certain sins.

In this context, having called the people of God to walk in love, he then in verse 3 says, But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, Notice again how God's list are not like the list that some of you make. You've got your list that would have fornication and uncleanness in it, but certainly not covetousness. You'd have a list that would say swearing and adultery and drunkenness. But you don have a list that says gossip laziness time God list aren like your list my friend In the day of judgment you meet God list not yours

18:11 - 18:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not use 'that's your generation' as an excuse to dismiss biblical standards; be prepared to challenge such claims with the Bible.

Martin expresses frustration with the excuse 'That's your generation' to dismiss biblical standards, challenging anyone to prove he has imposed generational rather than biblical standards.

That's your generation. If I hear that one more time, I'm going to scream.

20:56 - 20:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: let no man deceive you with empty words any words that any man will tell you starting with your own mind and your own heart that will assure you that you're an heir of the kingdom while deliberately walking in any aspect…

He quotes 'old writers' who noted that unearthing self-deceived hypocrites often disturbs true believers, but pastors must still 'blast them out of the pillboxes of their self-deception' to clear their hands of blood.

Now my friends, I beg you, and this is the thing that has wrenched my soul afresh, as I've launched into the commitment to bring this series that I recognize as all of the old writers did whenever you try to unearth a self-deceived hypocrite from his bastions of lies generally you only end up disturbing the true people of God while such hypocrites become more hardened but then as the old writers said if you're going to go to the day of judgment with your hands clear of their blood, you must still seek to blast them out of the pillboxes of their self-deception.

24:50 - 25:35 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are deceived, ask the Spirit of God to show you, so you can become undeceived and act now.

Martin uses the analogy of a deadly, dormant virus and emergency examining centers to illustrate that those most confident they are unaffected are most vulnerable, applying it to spiritual self-examination.

The one who thinks he never could be. Let me illustrate. There's a place down in Georgia called the Center for Disease Control. I believe it's in Atlanta.

38:47 - 39:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: if you were the devil and hated God and all his image bearers what would be your most effective way to get them into hell? would it not be to convince them they're on their way to heaven when they aren't

He poses a hypothetical: if one were the devil, the most effective way to damn people would be to convince them they are going to heaven when they are not, highlighting the devil's deceptive strategy.

the fruit of this first deception all of us lives with, we have lived with it from the moment of our conception and will take it with us to our graves and will not finally leave it until the day of resurrection. Well, that real devil is called the deceiver, preeminently the deceiver. let me ask you if you were the devil and you hated God and you hated everyone made in the image of God and you wanted to take as many image bearers of God to hell with you to be twisted distorted tormented image bearers of God for men and women in hell will still be men and women who were the image of God

48:01 - 48:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: if you were the devil and hated God and all his image bearers what would be your most effective way to get them into hell? would it not be to convince them they're on their way to heaven when they aren't

Martin uses the imagery of not breaking a bent reed or quenching smoking flax (from Isaiah 42:3) to express his desire not to discourage genuine believers, but to address the greater danger of self-deception.

he the scripture says would not break the reed that is bent he will not quench the smoking flax and I would not want to be an instrument to cause disruption in the heart of the most tender flickering wick of genuine Christian light burning in the soul of any child of God I would not place the slightest pressure upon a bent reed that is a reed of God's planting. But my friends, I fear in this place that is not our practical danger. Our practical danger is that we shall sit under another series of sermons turning us to this discipline of self-examination

50:18 - 51:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: if you were the devil and hated God and all his image bearers what would be your most effective way to get them into hell? would it not be to convince them they're on their way to heaven when they aren't

He contrasts imposing arbitrary standards of conviction (e.g., '25 pounds of conviction') with the objective standard of God's Word, emphasizing that true self-examination is not about man-made rules.

in the light of the objective standard of the Word of God. Not man's standard saying you've got to have 25 pounds of conviction this way and 35 ounces of tears mingled with so much bitterness and so much grief. And you've got to have 8 weeks of seeking and 12 weeks. My friend we have no sympathy for imposing such a yoke upon the soul of any man.

51:07 - 51:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not cooperate with the devil in your own damnation by refusing honest, Bible-based, balanced self-examination.

Martin describes the devil whispering at the listener's shoulder during the sermon, dismissing the message as 'rhetorical overkill,' to illustrate the devil's active role in promoting deception.

Deceiver will be there at your shoulder whispering that's over his feet that's Pastor Martin getting carried away that's rhetorical over it my friend the devil is present when the gospel is preached Jesus said it he that sows the seed is the one Jesus said who preaches the word then cometh the evil one if the devil did not scruple about entering into face to face dialogue with the son of God himself don't think he'll have any scruples about dialoguing with you. And he'll be dialoguing with you in this series of sermons I wouldn't doubt he's been doing with some of you today. And your defenses ...

51:58 - 52:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies false teachers as another agent of deception, illustrating from Jeremiah 6, Jeremiah 14, Ezekiel 13, and New Testament warnings that they lull people into false…

He points to the devil's interaction with Eve in Eden ('Yea, hath God said?') as the first instance of false teaching, casting doubt on God's clear word.

from the time the devil took the role of a false teacher himself contravening and casting doubt upon the clear word of God in Eden, for that's what he did. Yea, hath God said? Do you really understand what God said, Eve? Yes, I know on the surface of things it appears that what God said was, but hath God really said?

54:32 - 55:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies false teachers as another agent of deception, illustrating from Jeremiah 6, Jeremiah 14, Ezekiel 13, and New Testament warnings that they lull people into false…

Martin uses Jeremiah's experience with false prophets who called him a 'morose melancholic narrow narrow dud' and threw him in a slime pit to illustrate the intense opposition true prophets faced from deceivers.

You must ask the question, am I for real? not only because God warns against deception informs that some are deceived but because the agents to promote deception are constantly present and incessantly active added to the devil himself is this class of people called false teachers Jeremiah chapter 6 and this is only a sampling when one reads the prophecy of Jeremiah we find that his biggest problem came from the influence of the false teachers. Every time Jeremiah cried out with the true word of God there were a hundred false prophets to quiet the people down and say He just a morose melancholi...

56:00 - 56:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies false teachers as another agent of deception, illustrating from Jeremiah 6, Jeremiah 14, Ezekiel 13, and New Testament warnings that they lull people into false…

He describes false teachers as putting 'a band-aid over an open cancer' or treating a deadly disease with placebos, to show how they offer superficial comfort without addressing the root problem.

They are putting a band-aid over an open cancer. They're treating a deadly disease with placebos. They've healed the hurt of my people slightly. Result, were they ashamed?

57:40 - 57:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies false teachers as another agent of deception, illustrating from Jeremiah 6, Jeremiah 14, Ezekiel 13, and New Testament warnings that they lull people into false…

Martin compares the 'slight of men in craftiness' of false teachers to a magician's 'sleight of hand,' where error appears attractive and plausible, mesmerizing people into deception.

by the slight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error. Look at the language, slight. What is slight of hand? Here it is, there it is, now it's gone.

61:40 - 61:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And in no area is the heart's deceit more potentially fatal than when the heart can persuade a man he's right with God when he is not.

He quotes Samuel Rutherford's term 'house devil' to describe the natively foul, corrupt, and deceitful human heart, emphasizing its internal capacity for deception.

But you see, add to the devil himself and to false teachers what Rutherford called the house devil, namely the deceitful human heart. You and I are conceived and born with what Rutherford called our house devil, a natively foul, corrupt, and deceitful heart. You know the verse as well as I do, Jeremiah 17, 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

65:27 - 65:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself, 'Am I for real?' and answer your own heart, inwardly, 'Am I prepared, O God, search me and know me, try me, help me to know what you know.'

Martin shares the story of an office bearer's wife who was self-deceived for two decades, outwardly religious but lacking true heart delight in Christ, until her recent conversion, to illustrate that deception can exist even among seemingly devout church members.

Are you? answering your own heart how are you not outwardly inwardly am I prepared oh God search me and know me try me help me to know what you know and what the whole universe will know in the day of judgment nothing else matters we have sitting here this morning the wife of an office bearer who sat in this church for almost two decades and was as unconverted as the pew on which she sits until just a couple of years ago.

71:53 - 72:32 Read in full sermon