Definition, Part 1

A little nine-year-old walking home turns the corner and meets a 14-year-old, five-foot-ten, 170-pound bully. Martin uses this to define the fear of dread: a gripping terror based on the potential harm the object can do to you.

describing and defining the fear of God, how are those words fear used in everyday, common, ordinary language in Scripture? Well, first of all, there is the fear which can be described as being afraid, having terror or dread. It's the kind of fear a little nine-year-old fellow feels when he's walking home from school and he turns the corner to go the last block between where he is and his house, and he sees standing there in the middle of the sidewalk the neighborhood bully. Here's a 14-year-old kid. He's 5'10", 170 pounds, and he loves to beat up little nine-year-old.

6:23 - 7:05 Read in full sermon

On a class trip to Washington, the same boy is suddenly told the President wishes to speak with him. His eyes widen, his breath comes hard — but this is not dread, it is the fear of veneration before superior worth and dignity.

And as they're going through the various parts of the White House where they go on guided tours, suddenly an official breaks into the ranks and says, calling this young man by name, the President of the United States wishes to talk with him. Suddenly the little boy's eyes get wide and his breath begins to come hard.

11:43 - 12:04 Read in full sermon

A group of young men meet to brag about how they mouth off at home. One is missing — taken to the elders and stoned for rebellion. The gaiety leaves the group; God's purpose in the severity was to 'put fear upon the hearts of the people.'

So one day the little group gets together, you know, to have their little clandestine session of bragging before one another of how they've been able to get away with things at home and one of their cohorts doesn't show up. And they say, hey, where's Johnny? Didn't you hear what happened to Johnny? No, what happened to Johnny?

24:04 - 24:23 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a stranger to saving union with Christ, refuse the impulse to tamper with God's character to riddle yourself of dread — the 'paper mache' hell is a lie.

Pastor Martin's central image: a man walking down the tracks whistling, with a train bearing down at 50 mph 100 yards away. He is either blind and deaf — or spiritually insane. The impenitent sinner is in exactly that position before God's wrath.

What would you think if on that track you saw a train bearing down at 50 miles an hour, about 100 yards away from a man, was walking right down the center of that track in the direction in which the train comes, and he's whistling Yankee boots?

32:42 - 32:59 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a stranger to saving union with Christ, refuse the impulse to tamper with God's character to riddle yourself of dread — the 'paper mache' hell is a lie.

Martin recounts a liberal Presbyterian sermon he read in which the preacher said, 'One thing I am absolutely sure of, God would never send one of his creatures to hell.' Martin: 'That's a man standing on the tracks trying to convince himself the train is paper mache.'

Of course, he had lots of scripture to prove it to you. Not a one. What was he doing? He was a man standing on the tracks who sees the train coming and he knows he should be destroyed and he's trying to kid himself. It's not a train made of steel and tons of it that will crush me. It's a paper mache mirage. That's what lies behind all the attempts to change the character of God. Because men don't like to live with terror and with dread.

36:01 - 36:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your own use of constant television, entertainment, and busyness — is it drowning out the rumbling of coming judgment in your conscience?

Martin asks why Americans will cover 10 billion passenger miles this Labor Day weekend and watch endless television. His answer: 'I've got to keep busy, lest I hear the rumbling of the wheels' of coming judgment.

What makes incessant television such a national pastime in our own country and in other places where people have a plethora of televisions? May I suggest that this is the main reason behind it? Men don't want to leave themselves alone five minutes with their thoughts. Because unless the conscience has been totally seared, they hear the rumbling of the rules of a coming God, coming to judgment.

37:16 - 37:50 Read in full sermon

The point: If someone asks whether you are trying to scare them into being a Christian, answer 'Yes' — because you are scaring them with awful realities, not phantoms.

'Sir! A train is coming! Am I trying to scare him out of the way? You bet I am — but not with any phantom scare, with naked realities.' Martin applies this to evangelistic preaching of the wrath to come.

to that man in the tracks. Sir! A train is coming through the tracks! Am I trying to scare him out of the way?

46:55 - 47:03 Read in full sermon