How Can a Man Discern if He is a Christian?

In this part of the sermon: Beyond being a creature of God, a Christian is convinced he is a creature of Adam's fallen race, embracing the humbling truth of original sin and ceasing to fight God's…

Martin uses the analogy of fighting God over the arrangement of Adam's fall to illustrate the unregenerate heart's resistance to the doctrine of original sin, contrasting it with the Christian's humble acceptance.

And the Christian is a man who stopped fighting God and why God should have such an arrangement. The Christian is the man who is far more concerned with the undeniable evidences that he is part of a fallen race than debating with God as to why he should be part of a fallen race. If you find yourself, as it were, standing outside of Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 and Ephesians 2, debating and questioning and asking, why should it be? My friend, you've never seen your heart.

6:54 - 7:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Beyond being a creature of God, a Christian is convinced he is a creature of Adam's fallen race, embracing the humbling truth of original sin and ceasing to fight God's…

He uses the metaphor of a 'fountain of arid old cesspool of all uncleanness' to vividly describe the inherent depravity and sinfulness within the fallen human heart.

You've never seen what it is to be a fallen son of Adam. You begin to understand what it is that you as a creature have defied the Almighty. You as a worm of the dust have dared to stand in opposition to the God of heaven and earth. You as a creature have within you a fountain of arid old cesspool of all uncleanness.

7:26 - 7:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is the Christian knows that he is what he is. The non-Christian lives in a fool's paradise.

The non-Christian is described as living in a 'fool's paradise' to highlight their ignorance of their true, fallen condition, in contrast to the Christian's self-knowledge.

You see, the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is the Christian knows that he is what he is. The non-Christian lives in a fool's paradise.

9:06 - 9:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is the Christian knows that he is what he is. The non-Christian lives in a fool's paradise.

Martin distinguishes between merely 'feeling guilty' from failing to meet self-set goals (a psychological phenomenon) and true 'guilt in the presence and in the court of God,' emphasizing the latter's objective, legal nature.

You see, this is not a matter of just failing to live up to the standards that I have set for myself and therefore having guilt peeling. That's a purely psychological phenomenon. You set goals for yourself. You don't attain the goals.

9:56 - 10:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now you see, a Christian is a man who has stopped fighting that truth. And he owns it from the depths of his heart. He says, if I ever get what I deserve, I shall be consumed by the wrath of God.

He compares being guilty before God to being guilty before a human court, where one is proven a violator of laws and liable to punishment, to explain the legal implications of sin before the moral governor of the universe.

For the wages of sin is death. And to be guilty is to stand in a relationship to God as the judge of the universe in which everything in the character of God as just and holy demands the punishment of a broken law. To be guilty before a human court means that I have been proven as a violator of the laws that that court is committed to uphold and therefore liable to the punishment of the law. To the punishment which the laws of the land dictate and direct.

10:39 - 11:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now you see, a Christian is a man who has stopped fighting that truth. And he owns it from the depths of his heart. He says, if I ever get what I deserve, I shall be consumed by the wrath of God.

The 'eternal prison house of God, the lake of fire prepared for the devil and His angels' is used as a metaphor for hell, emphasizing the ultimate consequence of standing guilty before God.

To be guilty before God is to stand before the moral governor of the universe in such a relationship to Him that at any time that He chooses the sentence can come forth from His presence and I can be as it were consigned to the eternal prison house of God. The lake of fire prepared for the devil. And His angels. When does my guilt begin?

11:13 - 11:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Can you say, without tongue in cheek, that in and of myself I am a guilty son of Adam, deserving of the righteous anger of God?

Martin shares a personal reflection on how contemplating God's withholding of deserved wrath, despite his own self-interest and rebellion, rekindles his devotion to the Savior.

At times when my own heart is lagging in its devotion to my Savior, I find there are a few things that bring it around, to new measures of devotion, as does the exercise of thinking where I would be had God given me my just desserts before He drew me to His Son. And I ask, O Lord, how could You have borne with me all those years when day after day my life of self-interest and self-sufficiency, my life of overt and covert rebellion against Your law cried out to heaven, judge that sinner, seize upon that sinner, lay hold of that sinner, crush that sinner? God said no. He stayed the hand of justi...

13:03 - 14:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But the scripture says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

He uses the metaphor of putting 'a pane of transparent glass over the whole inner life of Adam' to illustrate the original purity of man's nature before sin, which then became 'dark and murky' and 'crawling with vile vermin.'

But oh, how the image has been defaced. And a nature that when it came from the hand of God, if we could have, as it were, put a pane of transparent glass over the whole inner life of Adam and looked through, we would have seen nothing but pure light.

15:28 - 15:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But the scripture says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Extending the transparent glass metaphor, he applies it to the Pharisees, suggesting that if one could see their hearts, they would see a 'seething cauldron of uncleanness,' revealing the internal source of sin.

Did society pressure the spirit of thievery and murder into the hearts of men? No. Jesus said to these proud, spotless Pharisees on the outside, he said, if we put a transparent pane of glass over your heart, you know what we'd see? This is what we'd see.

16:59 - 17:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Secondly, a fallen son of Adam is polluted and defiled, meaning sin has pervaded his entire personality, affecting his heart, will (making it rebellious), and mind (darkened to…

The darkened understanding of the unregenerate is illustrated by their ability to see the 'beauties of vanity fair' (sensual pleasure, material gain) but not the beauty of Christ, even when God speaks through creation and His word.

It was like an unbroken coat. He's come to see that his mind was darkened. The scripture says, the Gentiles by nature have the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. Ephesians 4.18 The understanding darkened. Darkened to what? Not to the beauties of vanity fair. As we pass through this world and we come to those booths that call for our attention.

19:43 - 20:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second crucial mark of a Christian is their opinion of Jesus Christ, specifically regarding the uniqueness of His person (the God-man) and His work (obedience, death…

Martin clarifies the word 'unique' by contrasting its modern usage (unusual outfit) with its classical sense ('one of a kind'), applying the latter to Christ's person and work to emphasize His singular nature.

Someone shows up with green trousers and purple shirt and chartreuse hat and yellow bracelets and we say, That's a unique outfit he's got. And what we mean, it's far out. It's unusual. But now the word unique in its classical sense means one of a kind.

25:13 - 25:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But the Holy Spirit has revealed it to his heart so that he loves a Christ whom he's never seen in the words of Peter, whom having not seen, ye love. And by the grace of God, he would die for that unseen Christ.

He illustrates the difference between mere intellectual assent and true spiritual revelation by describing a confession of Christ that moves 'from the larynx up' to one that moves 'down about 12 inches' to the heart, transforming indifference into genuine faith.

But that confession came from the larynx up. That's all. And you know what transformed us? When God moved the confession down about 12 inches.

27:11 - 27:24 Read in full sermon

The point: What difference do your opinions of yourself and Christ make in the way you live, think, work, play, and conduct yourself in private and public?

The Christian is described as a 'mystery to himself,' looking in the mirror and saying, 'that's you, but it ain't you,' to convey the radical, confounding change of the new creation.

And they'll look themselves in the mirror and say, that's you, but it ain't you. That's you, but it's not you! Why? Because a Christian is basically a man who's a mystery to himself.

35:29 - 35:43 Read in full sermon

The point: What difference do your opinions of yourself and Christ make in the way you live, think, work, play, and conduct yourself in private and public?

Martin quotes and expounds Galatians 2:20 ('I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me...') to illustrate the paradoxical, 'mixed up' nature of the Christian's new identity, being both dead and alive in Christ.

If you don't believe it, listen to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2.20. He was terribly mixed up. Listen to it.

35:43 - 35:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Are you a mystery to yourself tonight, or can you explain your spiritual state through natural means?

He uses a personal anecdote of a hypothetical past self who would 'cuss' at the thought of church, contrasting it with the present self who finds 'sheer holy delight, intoxicating joy' in gathering with God's people multiple times a day, to illustrate the radical transformation of a new creation.

Am I the same person that when Mom and Dad said, time to go to church, if I dared to, I would have cussed? And Mom and Dad said church four times in one day? At a double cuss? A quadruple cuss?

37:26 - 37:44 Read in full sermon

The point: If you do not have this biblical opinion of yourself and Christ, and these opinions have not transformed your life, you are not a Christian and are unprepared to live or die.

Martin addresses the common thought of a listener feeling personally targeted by the preacher's words, using it to transition into God's gracious and purposeful sending of His word for their well-being.

Could it be that God has directed this word for your own well-being? You think hard thoughts of God. You may have been sitting here even tonight and saying, why in the world does that preacher have to look at me? Somebody must have told him about me.

39:35 - 39:47 Read in full sermon

The point: If you do not have this biblical opinion of yourself and Christ, and these opinions have not transformed your life, you are not a Christian and are unprepared to live or die.

He shares a story about receiving a letter from listeners in the Midwest who questioned how he could freely offer Christ to all men given his theological persuasion, setting up his closing affirmation of the gospel's free offer.

And I stand to soberly tell you in His name, if you do not have this biblical opinion of yourself and this biblical opinion of Christ and these two opinions have not by the Spirit of God been joined to His transforming work in your life, you're not a Christian, my friend. If you're not a Christian, you're not prepared to live nor prepared to die and much less prepared to go to judgment. But to you this night is this word of salvation sent. I got a letter the other day and with this little word I'll close from some people who've been listening to some of our tapes out in the Midwest.

40:10 - 40:48 Read in full sermon

The point: If you do not have this biblical opinion of yourself and Christ, and these opinions have not transformed your life, you are not a Christian and are unprepared to live or die.

He uses the analogy of the gospel feast and the command to 'compel them to come in' (from the parable of the great supper) to illustrate the urgency and freeness of the gospel invitation, emphasizing compelling with words, not physical coercion.

The gospel feast is spread, he said. All things are ready. Go out into the highways and hedges and hide behind a bush and once in a while squeak out, come to the feast. No, no.

41:37 - 41:53 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have a low opinion of yourself, regarding yourself as junk not worth saving, know that this is a lie of the devil; you are of such worth to God that you will live for eternity.

Martin uses the analogy of destroying, crushing, and recycling useless things to counter the devil's lie that one is not worth saving, arguing that human beings are of such worth to God that they will exist for eternity as a monument to that worth.

You've regarded yourself as junk, something not worth saving, something that God of heaven would never look upon. That's a lie of the devil, my friend. You're of such worth to God that all eternity will find your existence a monument to that worth either in heaven or in hell. You only destroy and crush and recycle what is useless.

42:59 - 43:21 Read in full sermon