Free Offer of Mercy for All

The point: Put on your thinking cap and respond in your minds to the question of what is the most hungry and thirsty thing in the world.

Martin shares his childhood nickname as a teenage brother, 'Oinky the Garbage Can,' to illustrate intense physical hunger, setting up the idea of the soul's even greater hunger.

Are you thinking? Now, for some of you who have a teenage brother, the answer has already come to your mind. I had a nickname when I was a teenage brother to my many sisters. And to my two brothers, it was Oinky the Garbage Can.

0:55 - 1:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Listen attentively to the preaching of God's Word, recognizing that Almighty God is speaking through it.

Martin likens God's opening word 'Ho' to a coach saying 'Hey guys, listen up' or a drill sergeant shouting 'Attention!' to convey God's solemn desire for His invitation to be heard.

It's a particle calling someone to attention. It has no other function. Perhaps the most contemporary parallel would be what the coach does when he makes his way into the locker room where the players are gathered and says, Hey guys, listen up. And everyone drops what he's doing and turns his eyes to the coach.

8:36 - 8:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Moving to Isaiah 55:2, Martin presents God's two questions: 'Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfies not?' He uses a parable to…

Martin invents a parable of bus passengers stranded in a desert, offered real food and water by a restaurant owner, but choosing instead to buy sand and sawdust from another vendor. This illustrates the irrationality of spending one's life on unsatisfying worldly pursuits when God offers true satisfaction.

Now to try to drive home this question, I want to use a little parable. This is not a true story. I've made it up. I want you to imagine with me that there's a group of people who are all on a bus that's making its way from one point to another and they have to travel across one of those vast expanses in the western part of our country where from mile after mile there is dry desert.

35:10 - 35:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to God without money or price, embracing Him in naked faith and despairing of any help in yourself, throwing yourself upon His mercy and His Son.

Martin quotes Augustine's famous line, 'Our souls are made for you and they are restless till they find their rest in you,' to emphasize that only God can satisfy the soul's hunger.

You see what a contrast with the disappointing awareness that when we try to fill our spiritual hunger with sawdust, and quench our spiritual thirst with sand, God says, we're spending money for that which is not bread and our labor for that which what? Satisfies not. That which can never fill up the soul. God said us, as old Augustine said, our souls are made for you and they are restless till they find their rest in you.

52:44 - 53:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Children, young people, and young adults: find an older saint who regrets coming to the fountain of life in their youth, recognizing that true regrets come from seeking satisfaction outside of God.

Martin challenges listeners to find an old saint who regrets coming to Christ in their youth, asserting that true regrets come from seeking satisfaction outside of God.

I say again to you children and young people and young adults, find me one older saint who ever says, I receive, regret that I left the sand and the sawdust in my youth and I've been drinking at the fountain of life and eating of the bread of life all my days. I challenge you go out and find an old saint in this congregation. Ask this old man, aren't you sorry you came to that fountain? You listened to God when he said, come to me, come to me and buy wine in your 17th year.

54:30 - 55:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Children, young people, and young adults: find an older saint who regrets coming to the fountain of life in their youth, recognizing that true regrets come from seeking satisfaction outside of God.

Martin recounts the Fall, where the devil deceived Adam and Eve into believing satisfaction could be found outside God's will, leading to shame and running from God.

You know they don't. And it's because you're listening to the voice of the one who tried to persuade our first parents and succeeded that they could be satisfied with sand and sawdust. God said there's life in me and all that I am to you, and all I've provided for you. You need nothing outside me and of my will.

56:11 - 56:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes by reiterating that the soul must feed and drink, warning against the eternal thirst of those who reject God's offer, and urging listeners to seek the Lord while…

Martin references the rich man in Luke 16, who in life rejected God's offer, but in hell desperately begged for a single drop of water, illustrating the eternal, unquenchable thirst of the soul apart from Christ.

Do so for all eternity. Remember that man in Luke 16? In his lifetime, he was seeking to fill his soul with the sand and the sawdust of his affluent life. Abraham says, Son, in your lifetime you had your good things.

60:08 - 60:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, returning to the Lord for mercy and abundant pardon.

Martin refers to the parable of the prodigal son, highlighting the father's welcoming love and bounty as the true hero, not the scoundrel son, to illustrate God's abundant pardon.

God says, no, no, no, come, come, welcome. He's the father in the story of the prodigal. The prodigal's not the hero. He was a scoundrel.

64:13 - 64:23 Read in full sermon