Has the Gospel Come to you in Power?

The point: Ask yourself, 'Has the gospel come to you in word and in power?'

Martin uses the analogy of a bank teller scrutinizing a $20 bill to illustrate that only a counterfeit suffers from close examination; genuine faith, like a real bill, will only be confirmed by scrutiny. This encourages listeners to honestly examine their faith.

Has the gospel come to you in word and in power? It will produce in you, you will become what it produced in the Thessalonians. And I remind you, as we enter into a period of what will be intense personal examination, that it's only the counterfeit which suffers from close scrutiny. Go to the bank to deposit some money tomorrow morning and place on the teller's little shelf five $20 bills. And if,

7:03 - 7:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second evidence is becoming 'imitators of us and of the Lord,' meaning a diligent adherence to apostolic instruction and Christ's life and words. Martin applies this to…

He compares a new convert's natural hunger for God's Word to a newborn baby's natural hunger for food. This illustrates that a genuine convert instinctively desires to obey and read scripture, rather than needing to be coerced.

Is that? You don't need to tell a man that. Tell a newborn babe now you must be hungry and start opening your mouth looking for something to eat. With life there is hunger. Sure there is.

26:31 - 26:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third evidence is receiving the word 'in much affliction,' indicating that genuine conversion often brings opposition from apostate religion and ungodly worldlings. Martin…

Martin shares his personal experience of being opposed by the very people who prayed for him after his conversion. This illustrates that the gospel coming in power can be disturbing to those with a lukewarm or 'empty and lifeless' religion, because it exposes their lack.

Some of us found it coming from the most unlikely quarters when we were converted. And I speak by experience. Some of the very people who prayed for me in my days of open indifference to the gospel when God really saved me were the ones who opposed me. Isn't that strange?

36:09 - 36:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third evidence is receiving the word 'in much affliction,' indicating that genuine conversion often brings opposition from apostate religion and ungodly worldlings. Martin…

Martin recounts how his conversion led him to abandon competitive sports, which had been his 'God,' finding more joy in prayer. This illustrates how the gospel's power smashes idols and reorients affections.

It was disturbing to them that I wanted to go on the street corner and proclaim to men what Christ had done for me. Disturbing for them. Instead of sitting up and necking till 12 o'clock, I wanted to pray half the night with my buddies. Disturbing that I became so impalanced as to wear out a new Bible, a Thompson Chain reference Bible in two years.

36:50 - 37:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The fourth evidence is 'joy of the Holy Ghost,' a deep, settled awareness of sins forgiven, independent of external circumstances. Martin clarifies that this joy is not…

Martin tells of a missionary friend who debunked the idea that a smile indicates Christian joy, by showing pictures of smiling 'savage tribe' members who had recently committed violent acts. This illustrates that true Christian joy is an internal, Spirit-produced fruit, not necessarily an external expression or a result of natural circumstances.

Christian joy. Some when their joy is at its height, they've got to express it in such a way that the whole neighborhood would know it. And if you're of that nature, fine, just don't do it at midnight, you might get your neighbors upset. Some people, their joy is expressed in their face, but not everybody. This idea, oh I could tell he was

38:55 - 39:14 Read in full sermon

The point: If God has been stripping away your false hope, bow before Him and ask Him to do in you what the gospel is supposed to do.

Martin quotes Jonathan Edwards, stating that a sound conversion is rare, but even rarer is when God strips a man of a professed conversion to bring him to genuine conversion. This reinforces the idea that realizing one's false hope is a powerful work of God.

the most manifest and profound exercises of divine power is the stripping away of a false hope and bringing an unconverted professing Christian to the place where he says, I don't have the real thing. Jonathan Edwards who lived through revivals and dealt with many, many people under great distress of soul said this, a sound conversion is a very rare thing. But when God strips a man of his professed conversion and brings him to genuine conversion, this is the rarest thing yet.

45:01 - 45:42 Read in full sermon