False Teaching of Universalism

The point: Take refuge in the gospel with all earnestness.

Martin recounts witnessing a gravel pit fall and burying three people alive, and his loud cries for help leading to their rescue. This illustrates the natural, non-fanatical response to physical danger, setting up the argument for the urgency of warning about spiritual danger.

When I first came into this area, I was walking on a hill, and I saw a gravel pit fall and bury three human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for help so loud that I was heard in the town below at a distance of near a mile. Help came, and the sufferers were rescued from death.

0:02 - 0:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For, if Judas should even spend a billion years, that's a finite time, a long time, but a finite time, in hell, but ultimately look upon the face of Jesus as a redeemed man, what greater monument of grace would there be …

Martin posits that if Universalism were true, Judas, after eons in hell, would become the greatest monument of grace, having been saved from the greatest sin. This highlights the absurdity of Universalism in light of Jesus' words about Judas.

And he says in this case, a woe upon a certain man. It were better for him that somehow he could go back into a state of non-existence. It were good for him that he had never been born in the light of what awaits him in the world to come. Now, universalism would have to rewrite this text and say, it is good for that man that he has been born. For, if Judas should even spend a billion years, that's a finite time, a long time, but a finite time, in hell, but ultimately look upon the face of Jesus as a redeemed man, what greater monument of grace would there be than Judas? Who would have grounds ...

13:01 - 14:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Bow to the texts of Scripture and do not try to get around them.

He uses the example of Jehovah's Witnesses twisting John 20:28 (Thomas's confession) to illustrate how false teachers 'get around' clear scriptural texts rather than bowing to them.

He can get around it. But we're not to get around texts of Scripture. We're to bow to them. I have seen the Jehovah's Witness get around John 20, 28, when Thomas falls at the feet of Christ and says, You know how he gets around it?

15:07 - 15:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Bow to the texts of Scripture and do not try to get around them.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'jigging around texts' to describe how those who deny biblical truth will continue to twist Scripture until they enter the very hell they deny.

You'll keep walking around, bound them until you walk into the hell you deny is taught in Scripture. That's why Peter says, The ignorant and the unstable twist the Scriptures to their own destruction and advance a jig around text until they enter the fires of the dead. So, you see, a little child armed with a little text like this can stand against all the sophistry and all the apparent weight of the great doctrines of universalism and anarchy. Well, so much for a broad overview.

16:02 - 16:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Be prepared to answer universalists who use biblical texts to support their doctrine.

He states he is not 'building straw dummies' but addressing genuine universalist arguments, implying he is engaging with their strongest points, not caricatures.

What is God's plan of redemption? What does it envision? And their favorite passages are passages like 1 Corinthians 15, 24 to 28. And I'm not building straw dummies.

19:09 - 19:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And unless you come to that text with a theory looking for materials to prove it no one in his right mind would ever read through all of those statements of Matthew out or down darkness wailing gnashing of teeth eternal …

Martin quotes Charles Hodge's exegesis of Ephesians 1:10 to demonstrate that 'all things' in the context of reconciliation cannot mean absolutely everything, but specifically 'all the objects of redemption,' thereby refuting the universalist interpretation.

And so the universalist says, alright all things that means all men will ultimately be saved. But as Charles Hodge says in dealing with this passage and I quote,

29:10 - 29:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And unless you come to that text with a theory looking for materials to prove it no one in his right mind would ever read through all of those statements of Matthew out or down darkness wailing gnashing of teeth eternal …

He uses the metaphor of the word 'all' flashing with 'neon lights and multicolored lights' to describe how universalists build an entire doctrine on a single word, taken out of its broader scriptural context.

And unless you come to that text with a theory looking for materials to prove it no one in his right mind would ever read through all of those statements of Matthew out or down darkness wailing gnashing of teeth eternal fire all of those statements pregnant with those awful concepts of eternal judgment and suddenly discover that really doesn't mean all that. Look all things all things until the word all flashes with neon lights and multicolored lights and a whole doctrine is built upon a pillar of straw.

30:42 - 31:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Humbly submit your mind and will to the Word of God, rather than making your own reason the final court of appeal.

Martin quotes the rationalist Davidson, who, despite not believing the Bible, admits that the New Testament clearly teaches the eternity of hell torments, but rejects it based on his own reason. This illustrates that denial of hell often stems from rationalism, not biblical exegesis.

is not to teach its purpose is not to sanctify its purpose is to bring the righteous angle of God upon the souls and bodies of impenitent sinners and upon the being of the devil and his fallen angels there's not one shred of evidence in the Bible that grace is in operation beyond the grave or that there's any reversal of the disciples of the day of judgment not one shred of evidence not one not one it's interesting though many universalists have tried to teach their doctrine from the Bible one of the great rationalists the rationalist is the kind of man that Mr. Sterrett was talking about this...

36:03 - 37:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee from the doctrine of annihilationism as you would from the devil himself.

He compares the devil's first attack on Eve, questioning God's word about death, to the denial of hell, arguing that doubt entertained in the head, combined with corrupt affections, leads to outright denial.

well I've not even gotten to annihilation that'll have to take the message next Lord's Day morning I thought I could get through with it but we'll have to leave it but I want to say in closing because I don't want anyone to think this is just again Mr. Stair had emphasized so much in the hour to come a battle of ideas listen my friend listen the first attack of the devil to our first parents came at this precise point God said if you sin here are the consequences in the day you eat you'll die what the devil do serpent who came how'd he come have God said well this God that surrounded you with ...

40:29 - 41:58 Read in full sermon