Bad Record and a Bad Heart

In this part of the sermon: This section details the first part of the problem: humanity's terrible record before a holy God. Martin explains that all are accountable to God's law, which records every…

Martin uses the analogy of being born in a country and being subject to its laws, regardless of choice, to illustrate that humans are inherently accountable to God's laws by virtue of creation.

When you are born in this country and live in this country, it's not a matter of choice as to whether or not you will be accountable to the laws of this country. By the fact that you were born here, you become immediately subject to the laws and disciplines as well as the privileges of this country. And you and I, as creatures created by God, made in the image of God, are therefore accountable to God. Whether we wish to be or not is not the issue.

5:07 - 5:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the first part of the problem: humanity's terrible record before a holy God. Martin explains that all are accountable to God's law, which records every…

He provides an example of someone breaking civil laws (smashing a car, throwing a brick, kicking someone) and then trying to deny accountability, to show the absurdity of denying accountability to God.

For me to go out and smack my car into a telephone pole and throw a brick into the front window of a store in Caldwell and to kick somebody in the shins and then be hauled into court and say, look, I never signed up and said I was accountable to these laws. It wouldn't get me off. Sir, if you're a citizen of this county and of this place, you are accountable whether you want to be or not. And I don't need, and God does not give me the prerogative to stand before Him and say, Lord, I'd like to sign a statement of accountability or I'd like to sign a waiver of accountability.

5:34 - 6:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the first part of the problem: humanity's terrible record before a holy God. Martin explains that all are accountable to God's law, which records every…

Martin quotes an 'old Negro spiritual' to vividly portray God's constant recording of human actions, emphasizing His omniscience and meticulous record-keeping for judgment.

He deals with it in other ways, but I want us to think particularly this God. The Scripture says, His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, beholding the evil and the good. And as the old Negro spiritual says, my God is writing all the time, time, time. It's true.

6:15 - 6:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The scripture says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. When a situation is desperate, it's out of hand, isn't it?

He uses the analogy of a wife in a desperate situation with multiple crying children and something burning in the oven to illustrate what it means for the human heart to be 'desperately wicked' – out of hand and unmanageable.

You wives, you know what it's like to get in a desperate situation. You know what it is, don't you? Here you've got something that should come out of the oven and just as you're about to go get it, one of the kids slips and skins his knees and there's a kid who needs attention and is crying and another one out in the backyard who's got his finger pinched in the swing and there's something in the oven. You just don't have enough hands and feet to do it.

13:54 - 14:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider if the problem of your heart needing to be changed to love purity and God's law has ever gripped you.

Martin contrasts the ease with which God created the world (He merely spoke) with the immense cost involved in changing rebel hearts, highlighting the greater miracle and sacrifice required for salvation.

It didn't cost God a thing to make the world. See, just pray. He spoke, and out of the room of nothing were born the worlds and the galaxies. Beloved, it cost God to begin to move, to do something to change rebel hearts.

16:50 - 17:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Listen, you're no more fit for heaven without a new heart than you're fit for heaven without a changed record.

He uses the biblical analogy of a leopard changing its spots or an Ethiopian changing his skin to demonstrate the inherent impossibility of humans changing their own sinful hearts.

Nothing. The scripture says, can the leopard change his spots? And the obvious answer is no. Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

18:25 - 18:32 Read in full sermon