Importance of the Doctrine of the Deity of Christ

Driving home: The person and work of Christ are the nerve centers of biblical Christianity and the touchstone of all truth.

Almost every ancient heresy was an attack on a fundamental aspect of Christ's person — Arianism, Docetism, Nestorianism. The same is true today.

that the person and work of Christ are the nerve centers of biblical Christianity and the touchstone of all truth. Almost every ancient heresy was an attack upon a fundamental aspect of either the person or the work of the central figure, the Lord Jesus. Almost every current modern heresy is an attack upon some fundamental aspect of the person or work of the central figure, the Lord Jesus Christ.

6:17 - 6:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Except ye believe that I am, ye shall die in your sins.

Martin notes the italicized 'he' in John 8:24 — Christ said simply 'I am,' deliberately echoing the divine name and tying the listener's eternal life to confessing it.

John chapter 8 and verse 24. I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for except ye believe that I am. And you'll notice the he is in italics in the 1901 edition and in any reputable edition. It's not there in the original.

15:13 - 15:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Apply 1 John 4 to every spiritual movement that comes calling — test it doctrinally on Christ's true humanity and true deity.

Martin mentions a daily 28-minute radio voice ('someone must stand behind him with a bellows') as a contemporary specimen of a false prophet — and applies the test of 1 John 4.

One of them talks on like a word machine for a half hour every single day over WOR, Garner Ted.

24:28 - 24:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Refuse the 'feel-o-meter' as a test of spiritual authenticity — feeling is not a substitute for doctrine.

Will we test the spirits with a 'feel-o-meter' — judging a movement by how good it makes us feel? John commands a doctrinal test, not a subjective one.

John, you've said, look, try the spirits, but by what measuring, Rob, shall we try them? Shall we take a feelometer and we'll go to this expression of the Christian faith and we see if we feel comfortable next to it and if the feel-o-meter checks out positive, then we know it's of God? That's what many people do. They say, well, I just know so-and-so must be a real Christian.

24:56 - 25:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Refuse the 'feel-o-meter' as a test of spiritual authenticity — feeling is not a substitute for doctrine.

John deliberately uses the coarse word 'flesh' to assert real, physical humanity against the docetists who said Christ only seemed to have a body.

It was a denial that he actually came in a true human form. So that's why John uses the very almost coarse word flesh. He has come in the flesh. There was true humanity.

26:11 - 26:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Search the inner chamber where only you and God see — what is Christ to you when no one is watching?

Martin asks the listener to imagine being able to enter the deepest inner chamber of their thoughts — what does Jesus Christ occupy there, when no one is watching but God?

If I had the ability to work through all that you appear to be and all that you may have convinced others you are and could enter into that deepest inner chamber of your thoughts and affections, what place would Jesus Christ have in that inner chamber?

31:40 - 32:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Children of Christian homes: do not coast on borrowed faith — until you say 'my Lord and my God' you are not a Christian.

Martin presses children: 'You can say he is mommy's Lord and mommy's God, daddy's Lord and daddy's God, preacher's Lord and preacher's God — but until you can say my Lord and my God, you are not a Christian.'

Can you say with Thomas, he is my Lord and my God? John 20, 28. Oh, you can say he is mommy's Lord and mommy's God. He's daddy's Lord and daddy's God.

33:56 - 34:12 Read in full sermon