Gospel in Words Only

The point: Press the question upon your conscience: 'Has the gospel come to you in word only, or has it come in power?'

Compares knowing the facts of the gospel from childhood to knowing George Washington was the first president, highlighting that mere intellectual assent or familiarity is not enough.

The gospel has come to you. Many of you from the time you were this high, as you grew up into consciousness and began to think and reflect and learn, you never remember a time when you did not believe that George Washington was the first president of the United States. You can never remember a time when you did not believe that, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Savior of sinners. Some of us have been brought up with the facts of the gospel, the word of the gospel, a constant and continuous part of our consciousness.

12:17 - 12:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Isolate yourself from everybody else tonight and shut yourself in with that question, with the book of God and the God of the book, and face that question just as honestly and thoroughly and individually now, as you must…

Martin asks if Paul, observing one's daily life and thoughts, would conclude the gospel had come in power, emphasizing that true conversion is evident in private reactions and inner life.

And I trust that the Spirit of God will enable you tonight, to shut yourself in with that question, with the book of God and the God of the book, and face that question just as honestly and thoroughly and individually now, as you must face it in that day when you stand before, as the gospel, you know that gospel, it's come to you often. Has that gospel come to you in word only, or has it come to you in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance? If Paul were to live with you for six months, if he were to be your companion in the home, if he were to be your companion at work, if he wer...

14:06 - 15:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see we have emphasized the gift element of the gospel at the expense of the shift element of the gospel.

Distinguishes between the 'gift' of salvation and the 'shift' in life that accompanies true conversion, emphasizing that the gospel brings both forgiveness and transforming power.

To gratify actual sinful appetite and desire, the specific expression of it here being the worship of idols, whatever it is in its expression of depravity, when the gospel comes in power it will always effect that change which brings men to entirely new perspective. Ye turned. You see we have emphasized the gift element of the gospel at the expense of the shift element of the gospel. Now it is true that the gospel announces a wonderful gift for by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Grace is free not only in the sense that we do not buy it but th...

19:46 - 20:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that man was created to glorify and delight in God, but the Fall reversed this, making man self-seeking. God's purpose in redemption is to restore man to a…

Illustrates that God made Adam for Himself, and only God could satisfy the deep longing of his heart, even amidst a thousand delights in the garden.

Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And when God placed Adam and Eve in that garden, surrounding them with a thousand delights, God so made Adam that none of the things that he made could ever satisfy the deep longing of his heart. God made Adam for himself. And as Adam was surrounded with all the things God gave him, those things were on the outside and only God dwelt in that inner shrine of the heart.

26:02 - 26:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is none that seeketh after God. You mean the creature made to delight in God, to do the will of God, utterly turned from the very purpose for which He was made.

Uses Jeremiah's imagery to depict humanity's sinfulness as forsaking God, the source of life, for unsatisfying, broken cisterns.

Jeremiah states it in a way that is graphic. He said, My people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. no water. That's the picture of all humanity. And when you dig down beneath all the grosser or less or more refined evidences of man's sinfulness and get down to the core, here it is. He's a creature who's turned from the very purpose for which he was made, to delight in his God and to do the will of God. Now, what is God's purpose in redemption? I think it should be obvious, isn'...

29:09 - 30:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is none that seeketh after God. You mean the creature made to delight in God, to do the will of God, utterly turned from the very purpose for which He was made.

Quotes a definition of a Christian as one who has seen glory in Christ that has ravished his heart, emphasizing the experiential nature of conversion.

Christ. Who's a Christian? What's a Christian? A Christian is who Bureauhomme dejout strongly of Christ. Who famous the first Christian? A messiah. Aotshintows of us. Jesus Christ taught us in Eugene in 1133-38 that a person who suffering a design of fire, a person of is a man who's seen glory in Christ that has ravished his heart. That's a Christian. Listen, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, for the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Blinded them to what?

32:11 - 32:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that man was created to glorify and delight in God, but the Fall reversed this, making man self-seeking. God's purpose in redemption is to restore man to a…

Illustrates the indifference of the unbeliever to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, contrasting it with the Christian who has been 'arrested' by the glory seen in these events.

I'm speaking figuratively now with an attitude, ho-hum, he died. A Christian is one who's been arrested in that ho-hum walk back and forth in front of the cross and he's seen in that cross a glory. He's seen in that tomb a glory. He's seen in that throne and the one who sits upon it a glory that has ravished his heart and brought him captive to Christ so that he is now the willing bondservant of Jesus Christ and the aim and bent and drift though imperfectly is to know and please and serve this Christ.

33:13 - 33:58 Read in full sermon

The point: If you do not have a basic hunger for and delight in the word of God, you have no reason to believe you're anything other than a wicked person.

Compares the delight in knowing God's thoughts in His Word to the eagerness with which one reads a letter from a loved one when away from home.

You prove this every time you tear open a letter from your beloved when you're away from home.

37:00 - 37:05 Read in full sermon

The point: If you do not have a basic hunger for and delight in the word of God, you have no reason to believe you're anything other than a wicked person.

Compares indifference to God's Word to turning one's back on a great dignitary, highlighting the insult and wickedness inherent in ignoring God's revelation.

To know his mind, to think his thoughts after him? Isn't it the essence of wickedness to be indifferent to what Almighty God thinks about life and the home and death and eternity and work and all the facets of life? God has displayed his character and the beauty of his Son in this book. Isn't it wickedness to ignore it?

39:24 - 39:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Let's take seriously this exhortation that the book be first of all the instrument of our own personal sanctification leading us to ravishing sights of our God. Let us not expect people in the pew to shout evil. And if w…

Martin shares his shock at finding many evangelical pastors lacking disciplined devotional habits, using the Bible only for professional ministry, and links this to a lack of power in their preaching.

I said the other day that the ministry of the Puritans was not anecdotal, but I do believe there is benefit from illustration and anecdote. When in the providence of God I was thrust out into an itinerant ministry shortly after finishing school, I shall never forget the terrible shock that came to me when I went to church after church, evangelical churches, and when I would meet together with the pastor of the church to pray for the meetings and pray for his people. And we'd get talking about things after the third or fourth day when we got that facade of respectability and spiritual pride dow...

45:13 - 46:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you know anything of delight in secret prayer? It's a mark of a wicked man if you don't call upon God.

Uses these metaphors to describe the Christian's awareness of indwelling sin and the constant need for prayer to resist temptation and evil.

Give me grace this day. You see, a Christian is a man who's been awakened not only to the fact he's done some bad things but that he's got a terrible, terrible cesspool of corruption within. No, not a cesspool, an artesian well of corruption continuing to pressure up and wanting to spew out all forms of iniquity. A Christian is conscious of that and because he's conscious of it he goes to his closet and prays, but deliver me from evil.

50:01 - 50:31 Read in full sermon

The point: My friend, take seriously the word of God tonight. A man who's a prayerless man is a wicked man.

Quotes Edwards to explain why hypocrites cease secret prayer after their 'false conversion' – they believe their needs are met and have no further business with God.

If you live day after day without secret prayer in which you spread out your helplessness and dependence upon God, listen, dear, when I doubt you've ever had a discovery of the corruption of your heart. Jonathan Edwards in one of the most searching sermons I have ever read calls hypocrites deficient in the duty of secret prayer said these words, and I quote, When a hypocrite hath had his false conversion, his needs are in his sense of things already supplied. His desires are already answered, and so he finds no further business at the throne of grace. He never was sensible that he had any othe...

50:57 - 51:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you know anything of engaging in private confession of sin? Do you?

Quotes a hymn to emphasize the holiness and majesty of God, underscoring the profound nature of turning to such a God and the resulting consciousness of sin.

Ye turn to God! But who is that God? He is the God of eternal light spoken of in that tremendous hymn, Eternal Light, Eternal Light, how pure that soul must be which placed within thy burning light shrinks not, but with calm delight can live and look on thee. The spirits that surround thy throne may bear this burning bliss.

53:56 - 54:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you know anything of engaging in private confession of sin? Do you?

Contrasts the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with a 'God concocted out of the stuff of our own preconceived notions' – a 'daunting overindulgent grandfather' – to highlight the holiness of the God to whom we turn.

Surely that is theirs alone, for they have never, never known a fallen world like this. But how shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim before the ineffable appear and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated being? That's the God to whom we turn as God concocted out of the stuff of our own preconceived notions. A God who is sort of the daunting overindulgent grandfather who loves to have the spoiled little grandchild nestle up to him and smile and show his teeth and give him a quarter.

54:25 - 55:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you know anything of engaging in private confession of sin? Do you?

Illustrates that the greatest grief for a Christian is the clouding of God's face due to sin, leading to a restless desire for confession and restoration of fellowship.

Will thou hide thy faiths forever? Be not silent unto me, O that go down to the pit, O thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. The psalmist that caused him to write many a psalm was the terrible pain of the clouding face of God. Often enough it's sin that clouds his face and so because the greatest chastisement the child of God knows is the clouding face of God he's restless and disturbed until the sin has been confessed and there's the sweet kiss that he says with David, O that the bones you've broken may now rejoice. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be...

56:44 - 58:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you know anything of engaging in private confession of sin? Do you?

Describes the power of a minister who preaches with the 'kiss of forgiveness still fresh upon your own cheek,' emphasizing the authority and reality that comes from personal experience of grace.

Will thou hide thy faiths forever? Be not silent unto me, O that go down to the pit, O thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. The psalmist that caused him to write many a psalm was the terrible pain of the clouding face of God. Often enough it's sin that clouds his face and so because the greatest chastisement the child of God knows is the clouding face of God he's restless and disturbed until the sin has been confessed and there's the sweet kiss that he says with David, O that the bones you've broken may now rejoice. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be...

56:44 - 58:11 Read in full sermon

The point: If we're strangers to private humblings and confession of sin, I fear we're strangers to the power of the gospel.

Quotes a hymn to illustrate the true child of God's desire for God's person above His gifts, finding all earthly pleasures tasteless without Christ's presence.

For when men receive the gospel and realize that they are partakers of its benefits, they always indicate it by being content with God's gifts and being indifferent to his person. Whereas the true child of God to whom the gospel has come in power and he's turned to God, the cry of his heart is, O God, strip me of all of your gifts, but do not strip me of yourself. For how tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds, sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me.

61:02 - 61:41 Read in full sermon