Extending Forgiveness; Restored Trust

Driving home: If you, the infinitely holy, inflexibly just God, if you should mark, that is record, so as to bring into judgment every sin that you sinned, if you, should mark iniquity, oh Lord, who could stand? But, blessed but, ther…

Martin quotes 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins' from the Apostles' Creed to introduce the sermon's theme and underscore the historical centrality of forgiveness.

Amen. In an ancient confessional statement of the Christian church, imprecisely called the Apostles' Creed. These words are found, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. I believe in the forgiveness of sins.

2:37 - 3:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: To illustrate the distinction, Martin presents a fictional case study of John and Mary, a couple with 20 years of earned trust, shattered by John's adultery. Mary, a forgiven…

A fictional case study of a couple married for 20 years, where the husband's adultery shatters the wife's trust, illustrating the distinction between immediate gospel forgiveness and the delayed, incremental process of restoring damaged trust.

Now, perhaps the best way to bring the distinction into sharp focus is to do what I did last Lord's Day. And in terms of what I normally get, the feedback that helps me to know whether or not I'm doing any good to anyone and how I'm doing good. A number of you did mention enough that give me to believe it was helpful. By giving you those little case histories to articulate the principle.

11:45 - 12:08 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have damaged trust, the onus is on you to begin to earn it back through concrete actions and demonstrated faithfulness.

The metaphor of a 'bank of trust' where 'nickels and dimes' are deposited over years, but infidelity 'scatters all the coins on the floor,' vividly illustrates how trust is earned and can be instantly destroyed.

If you're going like this, you've been brainwashed into unbiblical thinking. No, you see, he has not only sinned against Mary. And that sin can have gospel forgiveness applied to it then and there in the pastor's study. He has opened up the bank of trust.

20:26 - 20:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Unlike forgiveness, which is immediate, mediately, fully, and irreversibly conferred, trust is delayed, it is incremental, and it is reversible.

Martin gives a personal example of men he trusts so completely that he would allow them in his bedroom with his wife, even halfway around the world, to emphasize the depth of earned trust.

We're not worthy of forgiveness. But we are either worthy or unworthy of trust. It brings us in a totally different orbit of ethical and moral issues. You see, John had earned Mary's trust.

32:34 - 32:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The case of John Mark is presented as a 'beautiful case study' of trust earned, then betrayed (when he left Paul and Barnabas), and finally restored, as evidenced by Paul's later…

Paul's view of John Mark's unreliability is likened to a 'broken tooth' and a 'foot out of joint' from a proverb, illustrating how damaged trust makes someone unfit for critical service.

him our attendant and while we are pressing forward into a new endeavor of gospel enterprise he thinks out and quits and he goes back to mama and he goes back to Jerusalem and Paul says when Barnabas says let's take him along with us again he says no. This is the man who was like the man described in the proverb confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and like a foot out of joint. We were ready to bite down on a new gospel enterprise we had a busted tooth named John Mark

44:12 - 44:55 Read in full sermon