Time and Our Soul's Salvation

Driving home: ultimate proof that we are creatures of time will be a marker of bronze or a headstone of marble that will have your name on it, and next to it a birthday and a death day. Now, folks, that's reality.

The ultimate proof of being a creature of time is a headstone with one's birth and death dates, emphasizing the inescapable reality of mortality.

ultimate proof that we are creatures of time will be a marker of bronze or a headstone of marble that will have your name on it, and next to it a birthday and a death day. Now, folks, that's reality.

1:34 - 1:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Soberly reflect upon the reality that you are indeed creatures of time.

Moses' description of life in Psalm 90 is likened to an inhale and then a long exhale, ending as a sigh, illustrating life's brevity and fleeting nature.

underscores this with more vividness and concentration than does the 90th psalm, the psalm that I read in your hearing. It is in this psalm that Moses reflects back over many, many years a man who had lived beyond the threescore and ten, and he could say all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh, and he likens the whole of his life. The beginning is the inhaling.

3:40 - 4:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Soberly reflect upon the reality that you are indeed creatures of time.

Life is compared to a blade of grass or a flower that sprouts in the morning, blooms at noon, and withers by day's end, emphasizing its extreme transience.

And we fly our lives to a blade of grass, to a flower that sprouts in the morning, opens to its full extent with the noonday sun, and by the end of the day has withered and has died.

4:44 - 5:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Do some sober meditation on the reality of the passing of time.

Martin shares personal observations from his large family and 27 years as a pastor, noting how babies automatically become toddlers, then teens, then adults, and eventually old people, highlighting the automatic nature of physical aging.

And with the occasion of the closing of this year, and with the occasion of the passing of the decade of the 1980s, I want to help you. As I have sought to help myself to do some sober meditation on this reality of the passing, it is to all of us that there are some things which, with the passing of time, automatically, as one of ten children, I have seen many of these things before my own eyes, with my own life, and with the lives of my siblings. Having been a pastor in one place for 27 years, I've observed many of these things in the life of this congregation. They happen automatically with ...

5:06 - 6:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Do some sober meditation on the reality of the passing of time.

Martin recounts the shock of being asked for his AARP card at a motel, illustrating how physical signs of aging become apparent to others even if one doesn't feel old, reinforcing the automatic progression of time.

And you have the shock coming that I had. It came for the first time last year when I enrolled in a motel, and I was asked, do you have your AARP card? Do you have your AARP card? I didn't go around with my birth certificate hung on my neck.

6:53 - 7:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that the passing of time does not automatically move you closer to repentance towards God and faith toward the Lord Jesus.

The concept of a 'bracket of time' is used to represent the limited duration of one's earthly life, after which, if impenitent, one enters eternal darkness.

The bracket of time is spent for that man or woman and that soul and on to and out into eternal dark. Where? There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and the smoke of their torment shall ascend up forever and ever and they shall have no rest day nor night. My friend, listen.

14:52 - 15:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: slip entered into the bank of heads of divine wrath and the next day five more shits of divine wrath and the next day five more shits until you have treasured chest and when your last bracket of time comes and only God k…

The idea of 'treasuring up wrath' is illustrated as daily depositing 'shits of divine wrath' into a 'treasure chest,' which God will eventually dump on the impenitent at the end of their life.

slip entered into the bank of heads of divine wrath and the next day five more shits of divine wrath and the next day five more shits until you have treasured chest and when your last bracket of time comes and only God knows when it is he'll dump the treasure chest in your lap dear people fear almighty

27:41 - 29:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: you say but Pastor Martin are you saying that little puny men can resist God God's eternal purposes and decrees no hath resisted his will that's the language of scripture but this is also the language of scripture you do…

Resisting the Holy Spirit is depicted as 'chopping off its fingers bit by bit' as the Spirit tries to hold out Christ, illustrating the gradual cessation of God's striving with a soul.

come today on this moment has resisted that word gracious command and invitation every time the word has commanded you to repent to turn from your sin and self-centeredness and your preoccupation with your Koreans and your you've been resisting the Holy Spirit what's the big deal if I do that my friends there's only one person who can show you your true state as a sinner and savingly reveal Jesus Christ to you and you know who that is his name's not in the phone book it's the person of the Holy Spirit when he has come he will reprove the world of sin he shall take the things of mine and reveal...

34:01 - 35:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: you say but Pastor Martin are you saying that little puny men can resist God God's eternal purposes and decrees no hath resisted his will that's the language of scripture but this is also the language of scripture you do…

The devil's temptation of Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple is used as an example to define tempting God: putting His goodness and faithfulness to an unwarranted test.

with horns and pitchforks saying boo the Bible says he comes as a messenger of light an angel of light and a messenger of righteousness he comes as a quoter of scripture and he comes to our Lord and says if you are the son of God see this great pinnacle place of the temple the greatest point of danger yet prominence climb up he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways lest thou dash thy foot against the stone and surely if the promise is going to be good for any of the people of God it will be good for you the son of God cast yourself down demonstrate that you are th...

38:24 - 39:51 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 to the Lord for abundant pardon.

A Christian poem about the final judgment is quoted to vividly portray the scene of judgment, the futility of self-righteousness, and the eternal regret of those who delayed salvation, powerfully underscoring the sermon's urgent call.

he promises him that comes to me I will in no wise can he that believes on the sun shall have life him that comes to me I will cited friend I close by quoting some of the most sober words I've ever heard in Christian music they were obviously the words of a poet then they were put to music and for those of you tempted to make this last Lord's Day of 1989 the last Lord's Day of 520 in the decade of the 80s another day when you say yes I feel the compelling pressure my conscience affirmed this issue the imagery of what we might call and these that the great morning had come and the trumpet had b...

45:44 - 47:14 Read in full sermon