The Building

In this part of the sermon: The sermon begins by outlining the three component parts of the spiritual temple: the foundation (Apostles and Prophets), the chief cornerstone (Christ Jesus), and the…

The metaphor of a spiritual temple or sanctuary is used to describe the church, emphasizing its construction and the dwelling place of God.

The Apostle, saying that God has negated the former status, you are no longer, verse 19, strangers and sojourners, and then expounds the present status, you are fellow citizens, that is, full members of the city of God, you are household members of the family of God, and then he gives this marvelous description of their privileges as living stones in the temple of God. And it is that third imagery of the privileges of the people of God, which occupies the Apostle's mind in great detail. And we are attempting to open up something of the richness of the significance of that portion of his descri...

2:57 - 4:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon begins by outlining the three component parts of the spiritual temple: the foundation (Apostles and Prophets), the chief cornerstone (Christ Jesus), and the…

The analogy of a physical cornerstone bearing weight, regulating angles, binding walls, and holding prominence is used to explain Christ's role as the Chief Cornerstone in the spiritual temple.

And then I attempted to lay before you something of the significance of that imagery of the cornerstone. It was the stone. Which bore the weight of the structure. It was the stone which was regulative for all of the angles of the structure.

4:53 - 5:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: They are marred stones, lifeless stones, misshapen stones, misshapen by ignorance and sin. And as we behold them, we say they can never be fit stones for a sanctuary in which the living God Himself will dwell.

The imagery of 'living stones' is used to describe believers, acknowledging its biblical basis in 1 Peter 2, and setting up the discussion of their native condition and transformation.

How were they brought into union with Christ? By what means did the Spirit incorporate them into that living temple? And let's carry through the whole imagery of the temple constructed of stones. Granted, they are living stones when once they become part of the temple, and though that imagery may seem strange to us, it's a biblical concept.

11:04 - 11:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now notice it doesn't say being, having built yourself upon. The apostle is careful to use a passive verb. Having been built upon. And in the passive verb, the agent is none other than the living God himself.

The analogy of 'animated stones' with minds and souls is used to emphasize that the stones (sinners) would never have chosen to be part of the temple on their own, highlighting God's sovereign activity in their transformation.

And so the transformation must be attributed to the activity of God and of God alone. The stones did not shape themselves. The stones did not fit themselves into the temple. And if we can look upon the stones as having a mind and a soul, if we can have animated stones, the last thing in the world they wanted in and of themselves was to be a part of this temple.

14:49 - 15:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject the idea that children are members of the church by virtue of blood relationship to believers; membership is by faith alone.

Martin quotes from the Trinity Hymnal's formulary for infant baptism to illustrate the view that children of believers are considered 'holy in Christ' and members of the church by virtue of blood relationship, which he then refutes.

And I assert, choosing every word carefully, there is no other revealed way of union with Christ apart from faith in the Christ of the gospel. Now you see how exclusive then and narrow is this description of membership in the true church? I say to some of my dear friends, and I use the word dear without tongue in cheek, who tell me that the reason they sprinkle their children is because they are members of the church by virtue of their blood relationship to living stones. I say, what does this do with Paul's definition of the exclusive narrowness of the church of Jesus Christ? I read from the ...

30:56 - 32:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject sacramentalist views that mediate grace through baptism and decisionist views that pronounce absolution without genuine spiritual transformation.

Martin respectfully names great figures like Calvin, Luther, the Bannermans, Cunninghams, Hugh Martins, Whitefields, and Jonathan Edwards to acknowledge their influence while still challenging their views on infant church membership based on Ephesians 2.

With all due respect to the names of men who daily, weekly, are my teachers, the great masters of biblical studies from the Reformation onward, Calvin and Luther and the great Scottish divines, the Bannermans, the Cunninghams, the Hugh Martins, those who preached as I will never preach, the Whitefields, the Jonathan Edwards, with all due respect to these dear and esteemed fathers in Israel, I say in the light of Ephesians 2, did the apostle envision a temple of God comprised of living stone that has been preached plus their children? No, no, no, no. Their children only in so far as their proxi...

33:08 - 34:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject sacramentalist views that mediate grace through baptism and decisionist views that pronounce absolution without genuine spiritual transformation.

He addresses 'sacramentalist friends' (like Mr. Lenski) who mediate grace through baptism and 'decisionist friends' who pronounce absolution after a 'sinner's prayer' to illustrate views that deviate from the biblical teaching on union with Christ.

from whom I quoted this morning, who would somehow have grace mediated through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I say to them, where is any of that in the passage that is before us? Union with Christ effected by faith, faith in response to the gospel, by the work and power of the Holy Spirit. No, no, my friends, you see this is exclusively narrow as well as inclusively broad. I say to my decisionist friends, who the moment they can induce someone to pray the sinner's prayer, then pronounce him absolved and in union with Christ, the Holy Ghost may not have even breathed one little zephyr of infl...

34:19 - 35:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject the false teaching that one can be in Christ but not in the Spirit, or that there is a separate 'gospel of the baptism of the Spirit'.

Martin describes a hypothetical scenario of 'psychologically conditioning' people with repetitive phrases to receive the Spirit, contrasting it with Peter's preaching to Cornelius's household, to critique false teachings on receiving the Spirit.

That is not the teaching of the Word of God. The Holy Ghost fell upon the household of Cornelius not when Peter was giving a lecture on how to receive the baptism of the Spirit. He wasn't laying his hands on people and psychologically conditioning them. Say after me, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

42:28 - 42:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject 'positionalism' that separates one's standing in Christ from their actual spiritual state; if you are in Christ, you are in the Spirit, with evidence of a transformed life.

He critiques 'positionalism' by describing Bible teachers who separate a believer's standing in Christ from their actual spiritual state, leading to a lack of evidence for the Spirit's work in their lives.

But on the other hand, on the other hand, we've got the curse of what I call positionalism. And I just heard an outstanding Bible teacher this morning going over that same old ground that certain Bible teachers have been going over for 75 years saying that our standing in our state have absolutely no relationship to one another. Some of you heard that before? So you've got all these people that say, oh yes, I'm in Christ because I've accepted his cross work on my behalf and there isn't a smidgen of evidence that they're in the Spirit.

43:35 - 44:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Adhere carefully to the gospel message in evangelism, presenting it in its pristine glory without tampering, trusting God to change hearts.

The analogy of men trying to 'polish these stones' or 'rub out some of the unsightly mark' is used to contrast human efforts in evangelism with God's sovereign work of making dead stones alive.

We'll present it in all of its pristine glory, in all of its flesh withering, carnal mentality blasting richness, allowing tumbling block and foolishness, but seeing it the power of God into everyone that believes it. O my dear people, what this poor Sodom and Gomorrah like area of New York and New Jersey desperately needs, what this country of ours needs reeling to and fro drunk on the one hand with the heady wine of its own philosophy and humanism and utterly besotten on the other hand with its preoccupation with the flesh and with the sensual what is needed? that somehow try to polish these...

47:32 - 49:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for God to raise up faithful preachers who proclaim Christ crucified with awe and hidden faith, not cleverness or jokes.

He criticizes 'clever personality boys' who deliver 'drivel' as preaching, comparing their jokes to Johnny Carson's opening monologues, to highlight the lack of awe and hidden faith in such presentations.

to parade on cleverness. I'm sick at listening to some of the drivel that is so-called preaching. Clever personality boys who tell their string of jokes with all the mess of a Johnny Carson in his opening one-liner. Nothing of the sense of awe, the sense of grandeur, nothing sense of the hidden faith of the preacher.

49:01 - 49:33 Read in full sermon