Three Central Truths, Part 2

Driving home: In saving faith, the sinner withholds nothing of his heart from Christ.

Saving faith is described as coming empty-handed and naked to Christ, with chains clanging and reeking with sin, to emphasize that the sinner brings nothing of his own merit.

verses 4 and 5. Now to him who works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is nothing. His faith is reckoned for righteousness. And one of the unique properties of true saving faith, that faith which is the fruit and the outworking of God's almighty, secret, inward regenerating grace, is that it is a faith that comes empty-handed and naked to Christ. The sinner comes. He comes with his chains clanging. He comes reeking with the stench of his sin. He comes

6:50 - 7:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Turning to Romans 6:17-18, Martin addresses the antinomian objection, arguing that saving faith unites believers to Christ, breaking sin's dominion. He describes this faith as…

The devil's logic that one should continue in sin for grace to abound is illustrated with a 'mountain of sin' (10,000 feet high) and God's 'super abounding grace' (15,000 or 30,000 feet) to highlight the absurdity and danger of antinomianism.

and the whole Christ in the plenitude of his salvation offers himself to the sinner the sinner in receiving Christ withholds nothing of his heart from Christ. Now a second text in Romans that points in this same direction is Romans chapter 6. Many of you I'm sure are familiar with the basic theme and content of chapter 6. Paul is answering that question raised by the devil's logic if we are saved by the work of another, if we are saved by the work of another, if we are saved by the work of another, and there is no sin we've ever committed or number of sins we've committed that can raise up a m...

21:46 - 23:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching. That's how he describes their faith. Faith he says was obedience from the heart to the form of teaching.

The Gospel is likened to a piece of cloth cut from a pattern, with distinct angles and shape, to emphasize its specific doctrinal and theological content, not a 'formless amorphous glob' or 'Christian soup'.

It wasn't a formless amorphous glob of some kind of a mixture of Jesus and the cross and faith and love and heaven. Something that somehow or another all mixed up together. You would smell it and look at it and say well that's some kind of Christian soup. Rather he likens it to a piece of cloth that was cut from a pattern that had been laid upon it.

26:49 - 27:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching. That's how he describes their faith. Faith he says was obedience from the heart to the form of teaching.

The sinner's delivery 'unto that form of teaching' is described as being 'cast into the mold of the Gospel of Christ,' illustrating how saving faith transforms the believer according to Christ's purposes.

He says something happened to you so that you were delivered unto the pattern of that teaching. And it's a beautiful imagery to demonstrate that in saving faith the sinner withholding nothing of his heart, from the Holy Spirit, from Christ is actually cast into the mold of the Gospel of Christ so that all that Christ has purposed in the Gospel begins to be realized in the believing sinner. But the key phrase for our purposes tonight is this. You became obedient from the heart to that form of faith. To that form of teaching. That's how he describes their faith.

27:43 - 28:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Jesus must be first in our affections or he will not have us whatever else it means it can't mean less than that if any man comes to me and hates not his own father and mother and wife and children the very God who we we…

Jesus' command to 'hate not his own father and mother and wife and children' is used as an example of the deepest human affections that must not rival one's attachment to Christ, becoming idolatrous if they do.

And Jesus turned to those multitudes and listened to what He said to them in verse 26 of Luke 14. If any man comes to Me and hates not his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. I will not own anyone as My disciple who is not prepared to give to Me a place of unrivaled affection in his heart. And rather than make a list a hundred items long, he goes into that circle of the deepest ties of human affection, ties that God Himself has ordained in there proper place, and proper excellence, and proper law, and prope...

31:15 - 32:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Jesus must be first in our affections or he will not have us whatever else it means it can't mean less than that if any man comes to me and hates not his own father and mother and wife and children the very God who we we…

The stories of three would-be disciples in Luke 9 are used to illustrate Jesus' demand for unqualified attachment, supreme will, and undivided heart from those who would follow Him.

surely means this Jesus must be first in our affections or he will not have us whatever else it means it can't mean less than that if any man comes to me and hates not his own father and mother and wife and children the very God who we were reminded this morning commands me as a husband to love my wife as Christ loved the church in coming to Christ for the salvation that is in him he must at that level have a place of unrivaled affection you so that if necessary I'm prepared for my attachment to Christ to result as it did in the case of many of the Corinthians even in a divided household I mus...

32:32 - 33:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Jesus must be first in our affections or he will not have us whatever else it means it can't mean less than that if any man comes to me and hates not his own father and mother and wife and children the very God who we we…

A man who puts his hand to the plow but looks back at friends on a porch is used as a metaphor for a 'divided hearted man' who is 'not fit for the kingdom of God,' emphasizing the need for wholehearted commitment.

me. And another said, I'll follow you, Lord, but something else must first be taken care of. And Jesus likened him to a man who, while he puts his hand to the plow to plow, has got his head looking back to the porch where he sees friends sitting on the swing and drinking iced tea and enjoying the cool breeze working its way through the porch. And he says, such a divided hearted man is not fit for the kingdom of God. Now, there's no contradiction between all of that evidence that comes out of the gospel records. That when Jesus calls people into attachment to himself, he calls them into an atta...

35:05 - 36:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So the moment faith is born in the heart of a sinner by the gracious sovereign operation of God in regenerating grace, that faith carries a baby called love to Christ.

Saving faith is described as carrying a 'baby called love to Christ,' and that baby, in turn, carries another 'baby called principled obedience to Christ,' illustrating the immediate and inevitable fruits of genuine faith.

I'm fully aware of that from my Bible and from my own heart. But of a Christian that is a believer in Christ who knows nothing of love to the person of Christ. The scripture knows. The scripture knows nothing. So the moment faith is born in the heart of a sinner by the gracious sovereign operation of God in regenerating grace, that faith carries a baby called love to Christ.

43:15 - 43:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Sinner, believe upon my son. See him as perfectly suited to your need as a sinner. Don't try to fix yourself up, make yourself better, or break your chains. Bring nothing to him but your sin.

The instruction 'Don't go out and gather some goodies to bring them to Christ' is a metaphor for not trying to earn salvation through one's own works or virtues.

And in the sight of his perfect suitability to your need. Don't try to fix yourself up. Don't try to make yourself better. Don't try to break your chains.

49:21 - 49:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Receive Christ and all that is in him. You can't pick and choose parts of salvation; embrace the whole salvation that is in him.

Christ's work is described as not only opening the prison door but also breaking the chains of those who are bound, illustrating His complete salvation from sin's imprisonment.

The scripture says he came to proclaim the opening of the prison. To them that are bound. What good is it to open the prison if they're still in chains. He not only opens the prison door.

50:01 - 50:15 Read in full sermon

The point: In embracing Christ, withhold nothing of your heart from him.

John Murray's definition of saving faith as 'self commitment to Christ in all the glory of his person and in the perfection of his work' is quoted as the 'finest description' in uninspired literature, summarizing the sermon's core argument.

Given in uninspired literature. Is that given by the late professor John Murray. In redemption. In redemption accomplished and applied.

51:32 - 51:41 Read in full sermon

The point: All you need do to go to hell is simply fail to believe.

Revelation 21:8, listing 'the fearful and the unbelieving' among those slated for the lake of fire, is used as a stark example to warn against the danger of merely failing to believe.

Liars. Who are slated for the lake of fire. You know what God nestles in the midst of them. He says the fearful.

53:42 - 53:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Give yourself no rest at this conference until you know you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Living in a 'no-man's land of obeying just enough to keep your conscience relatively quiet, but not enough so as to make you radically different' is a metaphor for a superficial, unassured obedience.

When John says, Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments, that means that a man can know that the pattern of his life is one of obedience. If it doesn't mean that, then I don't know what that text means. We can know that the pattern of our life is one of obedience, but you'll never know that if you're constantly living in that no-man's land of obeying just enough to keep your conscience relatively quiet, but not enough so as to make you radically different, and blessedly assured that you are in the way of obedience. May God grant that we shall lay to heart those simple w...

57:49 - 58:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin closes with a prayer, thanking God for His word and asking the Holy Spirit to bring light, life, stability, peace, and conviction to the hearts of all who heard the sermon.

A 'comfortable pillow of presumption' is a metaphor for a false sense of security in one's salvation, which Martin prays God would 'blast... to pieces'.

Our Father, we do thank you for your holy word. We thank you that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And as we think back over the history of the church and know something of the volumes that have been written in theological discussion and debate about the nature of saving faith and all the technical terms that have been used in an effort to state it with precision, how we pray that this effort to set forth from your word some of these basic issues will be owned of your Holy Spirit to bring light and life, stability and peace, and to some a clearing away of crippling confus...

60:37 - 61:57 Read in full sermon