Final Glorification, Part 1

Driving home: It is not until the body is fashioned like unto the body of His glory that our sanctification will be complete.

Pastor Martin warns against the blasphemous Mormon teaching that all of us will become gods. Glorification is conformity to Christ as perfect humanity, not elevation to godhood.

The blasphemous teaching of Mormonism, and that is the official teaching of the Mormon church, that all of us will ultimately become gods. Mormonism is polytheistic through and through. And all of the smiles of the Osmons cannot change the blasphemy into an acceptable Christian doctrine. No, we will not be elevated into godhood.

12:37 - 13:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask whether this glorious prospect actually excites you - holy longings for it are the mark of a true believer.

He explains the Greek word eikon by appealing to a coin's image - the stamped likeness reflects but does not replace the person. So the believer bears Christ's image without being absorbed into His deity.

But he uses the word from which we get our English word icon. Whose image and superscription is upon that coin? You see, the image was a representation of a real man with a real shape of his nose and a real slope to his forehead. And with a real and distinct character in his chin. Caesar's image was upon the coin. And when you looked at it, you'd say, well, that's not just a man or some man. That is Caesar.

14:05 - 14:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask whether this glorious prospect actually excites you - holy longings for it are the mark of a true believer.

Pastor Martin admits he gets goosebumps preaching this truth: 'I'm not embarrassed to say that.' The doctrine of glorification overwhelms the preacher's own composure.

Now, if that's not enough to make you shout, when I just say it, I get the goosebumps preaching. And I'm not embarrassed to say that. To think that God has marked us out and predestined us to nothing short of that. And that is the essence of climactic sanctification. The ultimate goal of conformity to Christ in the outer and the inner man will be realized in our experience.

15:30 - 15:57 Read in full sermon

He pictures God sanctifying us in degrees throughout life, then in an instant at death 'cranking up the intensity and shrinking the time' so the spirit is made perfect.

more and more enabling it to conquer sin by degrees, God, as it were, just cranks up the intensity and shrinks the time. And in an instant, that Spirit is made perfect to be at home in the presence of Christ. This is why He can say, as He does in Philippians chapter 1, words that as we shall see particularly in our study, which will be mainly application next Lord's Day morning, God willing. On the surface of things, this seems to be a contradiction. The disembodied state is nowhere set forth as the focal point of a Christian's hope. It's the coming of the Lord that is our hope. It's the total...

23:57 - 24:53 Read in full sermon

When Christ returns, He will find some on their knees crying, 'Lord, I want to love you more.' At that moment, those longings will be perfectly fulfilled.

confessing the sins of that day. Some will be on their knees crying out, Lord, I want to love you more. I want to serve you more. Why do I stumble and fall and grieve you when you've been so gracious to me? Think of it. When the Lord comes, some of His saints will be on their knees mourning the reality of indwelling sin. Some will be in the office, their minds totally taken up with their jobs as they ought to be. Whatever thy hand finds to do, do with all thy might.

31:32 - 32:00 Read in full sermon

Pastor Martin testifies that this body feels its mortality every morning - aching back, creaks, groans. Christ must reign till the body is glorified beyond such marks of death.

Bollast and destroyed on behalf of all my people. He must reign till this body no longer feels an aching pain in the lower back every morning. When there are no creaks and groans after the Sunday school picnic. And when there is no dullness in a worship service for lack of sleep. He must reign until this body can serve him with a service that he demands and of which he is worthy.

43:53 - 44:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop carrying fuzzy notions about death and resurrection - get an intelligent, well-grounded grasp on this third mountain peak.

He notes that some hearers will buy their own burial plots and stare at the ground, knowing they'll be six feet under. Without glorification's hope, that contemplation is unbearable.

Well, you've got to buy your own burial plot and know that someday I'm going to be there six feet under. And you look at it and say somebody's going to come by on Memorial Day and put some flowers on what remains of me. The reality of it begins to bear down upon you. And you say, do I have any confidence? And you go to your Bible and say, blessed be God, I have enough confidence to face death and the grave in the certain hope of being

54:38 - 55:07 Read in full sermon