Defining a Real Christian

In this part of the sermon: Martin traces the origin of the term 'Christian' to Acts 11:26, noting its original meaning ('little Christs') due to the disciples' distinct lifestyle. He laments the tragic…

The word 'Christian' literally means 'little Christs,' illustrating how the disciples' pervasive, radically alternate lifestyle led to this designation by either friends or enemies in Antioch.

And it's a Latinized Greek word, Christianos. And we don't know whether it was the friends of the gospel, who gave that name to the disciples, or whether it was the enemies of the gospel, who became so irritated with these people, who were constantly speaking of Christ, constantly attributing to Christ all of their virtue, all of their highest goals and deepest devotion. For the word literally means little Christs. And the word Christian was given to the disciples at Antioch, because of their pervasive, their radically alternate lifestyle to the pagan community around them.

6:10 - 6:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin traces the origin of the term 'Christian' to Acts 11:26, noting its original meaning ('little Christs') due to the disciples' distinct lifestyle. He laments the tragic…

The term 'Christian' has undergone a 'tragic devaluation, as a verbal coinage,' illustrating how its meaning has been diluted over time, similar to currency losing its worth.

It's used again by Peter in 1 Peter chapter 4 in verse 16, where he says, But if any of you suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. So when Peter used the word, he packed into it all of the significance of the New Testament doctrine of salvation. But a tragic thing has happened. From the days of Antioch, and the days of the suffering saints of the dispersion, to which Peter, to whom Peter wrote, this word Christian has undergone a tragic devaluation, as a verbal coinage to describe a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. In some areas of the world today, Christian means, that you are ...

6:55 - 8:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen to the sermon as if standing before the mirror of God's Word, asking, 'Am I what is being described?'

Martin urges listeners to stand 'before the mirror of the Word of God' to honestly assess if they are what is being described, emphasizing self-examination.

And therefore we are going to address the subject tonight, what is a biblical Christian. For when we come to Jesus, come to our subject matter proper tomorrow night, God willing, the Christian's role in a wicked society, I am thinking exclusively of a biblical Christian who has indeed a distinct and glorious role in a wicked society, but it is only a true biblical Christian who both has that role and can in any sense begin to fulfill it. And so tonight we take up the critical question, what is a biblical Christian? And I want to answer it in four propositions or four statements. And I want you...

8:39 - 10:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen to the sermon as if standing before the mirror of God's Word, asking, 'Am I what is being described?'

Martin shares that he has only met one person in his life who would not admit he was a sinner, highlighting that mere admission of sin is not the 'painful personal awareness' he describes.

of the gospel tracts, most of the methods of personal evangelism, have in them a part which says, you're to say to the proposed, hopeful convert, if you will admit you're a sinner, then believe Christ died for you, and you'll become a Christian. My dear friends, let us have a moment of silence and reflect upon a question that I have a mixed feeling, and a question that I've always had, and I'm not one of the many who have asked me this question and have come to a point where I have a revelation about a Christian who's a sinner, and not a Christian, or he's a sinner, and you know, or I'm not a ...

11:29 - 12:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen to the sermon as if standing before the mirror of God's Word, asking, 'Am I what is being described?'

Jesus' association with 'the riff-raff of Jerusalem,' including 'call girls' and 'Palestinian mafia' (publicans), illustrates His mission to sinners and the religious leaders' disapproval.

Furthermore, it was announced in his own personal ministry. The religious leaders of our Lord's day got very upset with the company he kept, because he was found again and again among the riff-raff of Jerusalem. The local union of call girls had more than one of their number found in his presence. Doesn't he know that she is a sinner?

14:10 - 14:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first mark of a biblical Christian is a painful, personal awareness of being a guilty, hell-deserving sinner before God. Martin argues this goes beyond mere admission, citing…

The crowd on Pentecost being 'pricked in their hearts' is described as being 'stabbed in their hearts as with a dagger,' vividly illustrating the Holy Spirit's deep conviction of sin.

It is interesting that on the day of Pentecost, the first sermon preached after the descent of the Holy Spirit from the right hand of the Father, as the Lord Jesus is exalted to the place of messianic and mediatorial kingship, Peter is preaching away in Acts 2, and we read in verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, most of the translations render it, but that's a weak rendering. It means they were stabbed in their hearts as with a dagger. And they cried out in the middle of the sermon, Brethren, men and brethren, what shall we do? We see our sin. We see our sin b...

18:43 - 19:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first mark of a biblical Christian is a painful, personal awareness of being a guilty, hell-deserving sinner before God. Martin argues this goes beyond mere admission, citing…

Coaching a drowning man how to say 'help, I'm drowning' is used to illustrate the nonsense of coaching someone to pray for salvation when the Holy Spirit has already wounded them with conviction.

What nonsense! To coach a drowning man how to say, help, I'm drowning.

21:54 - 22:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A good definition of a Christian is a man whose mouth... Your mouth has been shut before God.

Paul's realization that 'sin is dead' apart from the law is explained as not seeing sin 'as a living powerful monster that controlled me,' illustrating the shift from intellectual concept to felt reality.

sin except through the law, for I had not known coveting except the law said, Thou shalt not covet, but sin finding occasion wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting, for apart from the law sin is dead. That is, I did not see sin as a living powerful monster that controlled me. Oh yes, sin might control the filthy Goyim, the Gentiles, but not this proud Pharisee, touching the law blameless. Private Benjamin circumcised the eighth day, but he said under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the tenth commandment began to burrow its way in his heart, and he realized you don't cov...

23:42 - 25:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A good definition of a Christian is a man whose mouth... Your mouth has been shut before God.

God pulling the lid off Paul's heart revealed 'a bottomless pit of foul stinking, rotten, evil desire,' illustrating the depth of indwelling sin revealed by the tenth commandment.

sin except through the law, for I had not known coveting except the law said, Thou shalt not covet, but sin finding occasion wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting, for apart from the law sin is dead. That is, I did not see sin as a living powerful monster that controlled me. Oh yes, sin might control the filthy Goyim, the Gentiles, but not this proud Pharisee, touching the law blameless. Private Benjamin circumcised the eighth day, but he said under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the tenth commandment began to burrow its way in his heart, and he realized you don't cov...

23:42 - 25:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A good definition of a Christian is a man whose mouth... Your mouth has been shut before God.

A good definition of a Christian is 'a man whose mouth... has been shut before God,' illustrating the state of having nothing to plead in self-defense due to overwhelming conviction of sin.

who are saved by Christ are made true Christians, first of all, by being convinced through the Word and the Spirit that they are hell-deserving sinners before Almighty God, their Creator and their Judge. And Paul demonstrates that conclusively in the opening chapters of Romans when he takes one segment of humanity after another until he corrals them all in chapter 3, verses 20 and 21, and says, What things soever the law says, it says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. A good definition of a Christian is a man whose mouth...

25:08 - 26:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second mark is hearing and receiving as true God's only way of deliverance, which centers on the unique person of the God-man Christ Jesus and His accomplished work as a…

The oak border of the pulpit is used as an analogy for a 'hard fact of physical reality,' with bloody knuckles as proof, to illustrate that the gospel facts are not 'phantom notions' but real, objective truths.

of physical reality, and if I were to make a fist and wrap my knuckles with all their might, you'd see my bloody knuckles as the proof that you're not looking at phantom oak as real hard, sure enough, real stuff. And the gospel is not phantom notions. There was a real womb in which God performed his great mystery in the darkness, and there was conceived in that womb the God-man. And though he was God upholding the galaxies by the word of his power, he's connected to a life system by an umbilical cord like every other baby. A true man, and yet true God.

42:31 - 43:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine yourself in the mirror of God's Word: Do you see yourself as acutely aware of your sin in Adam, from conception, and in actual transgressions? Have you heard and accepted as true the facts about Christ's unique p…

A preacher's quote about Christ's death having 'virtue enough' if 'every grain of sand on the seashore... every single star in the galaxies... were every one a sinner,' illustrates the infinite worth of Christ's sacrifice due to His deity.

Every single star in the galaxies in their millions. Were every one a sinner, there would be virtue enough in the death of Christ had God chosen to make it applicable to that many sinners. For it is the infinite God who is joined to true humanity, and it is his deity that gives infinite worth to his sacrifice. But it was a true man. Don't believe that Christmas. This carol that says, the little Lord Jesus, when he awakes, no crying he makes. That's a lot of bunkum. If the cattle mooed and Jesus awoke, he wheezed as loud as any baby ever did. And he was nursed at Mary's breast, and he had to le...

43:48 - 44:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine yourself in the mirror of God's Word: Do you see yourself as acutely aware of your sin in Adam, from conception, and in actual transgressions? Have you heard and accepted as true the facts about Christ's unique p…

Martin debunks the Christmas carol line 'the little Lord Jesus, when he awakes, no crying he makes' as 'bunkum,' emphasizing Jesus' true humanity, including crying and learning like any other baby.

Every single star in the galaxies in their millions. Were every one a sinner, there would be virtue enough in the death of Christ had God chosen to make it applicable to that many sinners. For it is the infinite God who is joined to true humanity, and it is his deity that gives infinite worth to his sacrifice. But it was a true man. Don't believe that Christmas. This carol that says, the little Lord Jesus, when he awakes, no crying he makes. That's a lot of bunkum. If the cattle mooed and Jesus awoke, he wheezed as loud as any baby ever did. And he was nursed at Mary's breast, and he had to le...

43:48 - 44:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine yourself in the mirror of God's Word: Do you see yourself as acutely aware of your sin in Adam, from conception, and in actual transgressions? Have you heard and accepted as true the facts about Christ's unique p…

A hypothetical story of Jesus scraping his knees and asking Mary to fix his 'boo-boo' illustrates His real humanity and the reality of His childhood experiences.

Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Dalet, He, Ob, Sion. He had to learn to tie his sandals. He had to learn to say his words. He grew in wisdom, in stature, in favor with God, in man. He had to learn his manners. He had to learn to say excuse me and please and thank you. And what instruments to use and utensils at the table to be a cultured young Hebrew boy. It was real humanity. It wasn't phantom humanity. And when Jesus fell in the parking lot and scraped his knees, he came in and said, Mommy, I got a boo-boo. Will you fix it? And she kissed it and made a big noise. And he said, Mommy, I got a boo-boo. Wil...

44:46 - 45:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third mark is a Spirit-wrought experience and state of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Martin warns that intellectual assent alone is…

The demons inhabiting the pigs in the Gospels, crying 'Don't torment us before our time!' and calling Jesus 'Son of God,' illustrates that mere knowledge of facts and belief in God's existence is not saving faith.

The devil. He knows he is a doomed, damned spirit. So do all the demons. Remember in the days of our Lord's flesh? The demons that inhabited the pigs?

49:36 - 49:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third mark is a Spirit-wrought experience and state of repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Martin warns that intellectual assent alone is…

The cross is explained as an ugly symbol of violent death for an outcast criminal in the Roman Empire, not an ornament, illustrating the radical self-denial and identification with the crucified Christ required of His followers.

Cross equals death.

68:20 - 68:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The teaching of the Bible is once saved, always saved, and how you live proves you are saved. That's the teaching of the Bible.

Those who claim eternal security without a changed life are called 'ghosts' with a sign around their neck, illustrating the emptiness of a profession of faith not validated by obedience.

Jesus said in describing his sheep in John 10, 27, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. That's one of the most abused verses in all of the Bible. People use it to teach the antinomian soul-destructive hell-spawn doctrine of eternal security. Once saved, always saved, no matter how you live.

73:34 - 74:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For me to live as Christ, only then will it be gained to die. If you can't say, for me to live as Christ, dying won't be gained to you. It'll be eternal loss.

The 'average evangelical' today is described as having 'a little sprinkling of Jesus just enough to keep my conscience quiet,' illustrating a superficial, self-serving form of Christianity.

They were real Christians. Christ was the beginning, middle, and end. The end of life, they could say with Paul, for to me, not just to go to heaven when I die as Christ, that's the creed of the average evangelical today. For me to go to heaven when I die as Christ and everything in between is career, money, things, popularity, pleasure, with a little sprinkling of Jesus just enough to keep my conscience quiet.

81:58 - 82:24 Read in full sermon

The point: If your Christianity does not match the biblical description, go to God now while the door of mercy is still open. Run to Christ, cry to God, and cast yourself upon Him.

Martin states he would 'sooner be in a bread line with a good conscience than live in a posh home with a bloody conscience' if it meant compromising Christ's standards, illustrating the priority of Christ over worldly success.

For me to live is not a career and a nice home and a comfortable bank account. If God blesses my endeavors in the way of righteousness and gives me the stewardship of success, I'll accept it. But if I must compromise the standards of Christ, I'd sooner be in a bread line with a good conscience than live in a posh home with a bloody conscience because I violated the word of Christ.

83:08 - 83:33 Read in full sermon