Continuous Effects

Pastor Martin notes that the confession of Jesus as 'the Christ' (not 'a Christ') strikes at the heart of Muslim theology, which honors Jesus as a great prophet but not the final and unique Messiah.

In the divine beginning, there is this attachment to Jesus as the Christ. Not one Christ. A Christ. You see, here it strikes at the heart of Muslim theology. Jesus Christ is a great prophet, a great anointed one. No, no, John says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the great

17:26 - 17:52 Read in full sermon

Confessing Jesus as the final Priest means rejecting any human priest's craft with mumbo-jumbo turning wafer and bread into something supposedly mediatorial.

prophet raised up like unto Moses. The Christ. No other priest to come. No confidence in a human priest's craft with its mumbo-jumbo that supposedly turns the wafer and the bread, the wine, into the very body of Christ and offers Him up in a bloodless sacrifice. No, no. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, the final and great

17:54 - 18:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine whether you know, believe, and unreservedly confess Jesus as true God, true man, and the only Messiah - not just have spiritual experiences.

Martin compares experience-driven 'born again' people without doctrinal content to those high on chewing exotic root weeds for hours, having great experiences disconnected from truth.

high on some kind of exotic root weed that they've been chewing for the past three hours. They have great experiences, but it has no connection with truth whatsoever. Let me ask another question. Do you grow restive? You know what restive means? Fidgety? Under doctrinal preaching?

23:04 - 23:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My friend this is not the new birth that I read in my Bible. Whosoever doeth righteousness has been begotten of God.

He cites professing Christians who bend their Sabbath theology to fit a carnal itch for sports rather than submit their feet to God's commandments.

God says, remember the Sabbath? Who cares about what God says? So you've got your sports addicts who try to bend their theology of the Sabbath to fit their carnal itch. To go to church and sad their conscience in the morning and then indulge themselves in their sports all Sunday afternoon. Immorality. Immorality.

37:59 - 38:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My friend this is not the new birth that I read in my Bible. Whosoever doeth righteousness has been begotten of God.

Martin points to Hollywood actors taking part in lecherous plots while claiming the new birth on talk shows as a travesty of biblical regeneration.

abortion, dishonesty, waste, greed. And yet all this talk about being born again. Talk shows, having actors who take part in lecherous plots, both in the theater and in the motion picture industry, and they talk very deliberately about being born again. Ball players, and I could name their names, who blatantly talk about being born again and are quoted on Monday using foul language.

38:28 - 38:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, ask whether your wife could most powerfully testify to your love - that domestic witness is part of the new birth's social fruit.

If a man claims to be born of God, his wife should be the most eloquent witness to that fact - able to say 'I know my husband loves me.'

You better take this seriously. You claim to be born of God? Your wife ought to be one of those who could most eloquently and powerfully present a case for that fact. I know my husband to be a man who constantly tramples underfoot his own selfish native interest in pursuit of ministering to my needs. Can your wife say that about you, man? Can she?

47:23 - 47:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, ask whether your wife could most powerfully testify to your love - that domestic witness is part of the new birth's social fruit.

He challenges joining hands with those who fund machine-gun-wielding revolutionaries while wearing crosses and titles, calling it a perversion of biblical love.

with all of their crosses hung around their necks and all of their right reverend and all of their titles and the rest. And all these passages expose the shallow claims of ecumenism to be a loving community of Christians. You see what it does with respect to those who think that love is a mere sentimental gush with no principled self-sacrificing quality, it utterly exposes it.

49:49 - 50:16 Read in full sermon