Inviting Men to Christ

The point: Seek help from those eminently used by God in inviting men to Christ when grappling with this subject.

Martin quotes John Newton's advice to approach divisive theological subjects with modesty and courteousness, acknowledging that eminent ministers are divided on such points.

It's difficult as to its substance, and it's also difficult as to the manner in which one would handle it in one hour, give or take a few minutes either direction. For this is an issue that has split churches, has rent denominations, has caused the writing of great tomes of theological literature, and so to simply expound some text of scripture with no historical perspective would appear simplistic and perhaps a bit arrogant, as though I had the last word on all of the texts that are the point of controversy. I find myself very much at home with the words of John Newton, who writing to someone...

2:18 - 3:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek help from those eminently used by God in inviting men to Christ when grappling with this subject.

He uses the analogy of seeking a chiropodist for a sore foot, rather than an ear specialist, to argue that for questions about inviting men to Christ, one should seek help from those eminently used by God in that area.

And unlike the doctor, who has the opportunity of enlarging from the historical perspective in the next two nights and give us the biblical perspective, I've got to squeeze everything into one hour. Now what I'm going to attempt to do is to come at the subject with a balance of biblical and historical and biographical data that I trust will simply whet your appetite for further investigation in those three areas. I'm hoping it will drive you into scripture, and I'm hoping it will drive you to search out what the great masters in Israel have said on the subject, and that as you read the biograp...

3:38 - 4:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, the idea that is current in our day, you've heard it often, be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian on your feet sounds good. But woe, woe be unto you if that's true of you.

Martin references the common saying 'be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian on your feet' to highlight the inconsistency it represents, arguing that theology must inform methodology.

You see, the idea that is current in our day, you've heard it often, be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian on your feet sounds good. But woe, woe be unto you if that's true of you. For you see, when you're on your feet evangelizing, your methods of evangelism and your message of evangelism is simply an extension into life and experience of your theology. Your methodology is an extension into life and practice of your theology.

6:51 - 7:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines the core problem for those who take Scripture seriously: reconciling the duty to evangelize with doctrines like election, definite atonement, man's spiritual…

He uses a child asking 'Daddy, can I do this?' to illustrate the precise meaning of 'can' as a word of ability, reinforcing the biblical teaching of man's spiritual inability.

Not a physical inability, but a disinclination of the will and the affections coupled with a darkness of the mind. Doesn't the word of God say, John 6, 44, no man can, can is a word of ability. If we keep on butchering the English language we won't be able to communicate at that point much longer. My son comes up to me and says, Daddy, can I do this?

11:07 - 11:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to be 'drained, mentally wrestling' with the whole counsel of God, taking it seriously for the first time.

Martin recounts a conversation with a preacher who devised an 'ingenious way' to give lip service to hard doctrines while bleeding them out of Scripture, illustrating a way some dismiss problematic truths.

It now means ratification. Some have done this. I talked with a preacher at a conference a few months ago where I was privileged to minister to a group of preachers, and it's obvious this fellow has spent hours not wrestling with the biblical material and seeking by the Spirit of God to be brought to the place where he's at home with what God says, no matter how it jangles on his own idea of what is logical, but he has spent hours working out a very ingenious way to give lip service to these hard doctrines of election and the particular design of Christ's atonement while in his heart and in re...

19:04 - 20:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to be 'drained, mentally wrestling' with the whole counsel of God, taking it seriously for the first time.

He describes Melanchthon's synergistic view where a sinner is suspended for a moment, free to 'twitch his head' toward Christ, which then allows God's grace to take over, illustrating another attempt to reconcile human will and divine grace.

It now means ratification. Some have done this. I talked with a preacher at a conference a few months ago where I was privileged to minister to a group of preachers, and it's obvious this fellow has spent hours not wrestling with the biblical material and seeking by the Spirit of God to be brought to the place where he's at home with what God says, no matter how it jangles on his own idea of what is logical, but he has spent hours working out a very ingenious way to give lip service to these hard doctrines of election and the particular design of Christ's atonement while in his heart and in re...

19:04 - 20:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He critiques common ways of dealing with this problem: dismissing it as irrelevant, or distorting aspects of truth (Arminianism or Hyper-Calvinism) for logical consistency…

Martin retells Spurgeon's story of a schoolboy with an apple, first showing it, then letting a friend smell it, to illustrate how some hyper-Calvinists hedge God's offer of salvation with conditions, making it less than a genuine offer to eat.

I can't live with that inconsistency. So they focus upon all those areas of truth that clearly teach God's general desire God's benevolence God's sincere offer of mercy and they begin to manipulate them and hedge them up with conditions and with buts and ands and ifs and therefores. They do what some of you read in one of the recent editions of the banner Spurgeon quoting a fellow preacher gave him this illustration. A little schoolboy was out in the schoolyard and he had a nice bright shiny apple and he shined it all up.

21:33 - 22:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Have consciences held captive to the plain and obvious meaning of God's Word, resting there and laboring from that position.

He quotes a servant of God saying 'faith is reason at rest in God' and elaborates on reason's role in ceasing to reason about things above reason, guiding the approach to inscrutable truths.

Or in the second place, you can deny that aspect of truth which creates the problem. Or in the third place, and I trust this will be our reaction to the problem, we can embrace the clear declarations of the Word of God and follow wherever the hand of Scripture leads us. One servant of God said, and it's been a great help to me, faith is reason at rest in God.

24:01 - 24:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Determine your path of evangelistic duty by the precepts of God, not by trying to discern His decrees.

Martin shares his personal struggle in 1954 on a mission field, grappling with predestination and his duty to evangelize, highlighting the confusion that arises when one tries to derive duty from God's decrees rather than His precepts.

This is not just theoretical with me. I'll never forget the first time when, it was in the summer of 1954, and I was down in the little, what would be called the white trash section of the South, the very poor section, ministering there in a little mission church, and someone gave me a Westminster Confession. Here it is. I still have it, the one that was given to me then.

29:37 - 30:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But, O my soul, if truth so bright should dazzle and confound thy sight, yet still his written will obey and wait the great decisive day.

He quotes Andrew Fuller on the necessity of embracing both seemingly clashing doctrines in Scripture, rather than rejecting one, and attributing the apparent inconsistency to human understanding.

My thoughts are not your thoughts. In the classic work on this whole subject of the three authors of the Gospel, Andrew Fuller, in introducing the subject, writes a paragraph that I wish to read at this time. Were a difficulty allowed to exist as to the reconciling of these subjects, the very things that I have introduced, the command to evangelize, coupled with the particularity of God's decree and the intent of the saving work of Christ, were a difficulty allowed to exist as to the reconciling of these subjects, it would not warrant a rejection of either of them. If I find two doctrines affi...

32:52 - 34:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But, O my soul, if truth so bright should dazzle and confound thy sight, yet still his written will obey and wait the great decisive day.

Martin quotes Dr. Watts' hymn lines about truth dazzling and confounding sight, yet still obeying God's written will, to reinforce the idea of resting in revealed truth despite its inscrutability.

The other is to embrace them both concluding that as they are both revealed in the Scriptures and are both true and both consistent, and that it is owing to the darkness of our understanding that they do not appear so to us. Those excellent lines of Dr. Watts in his hymn on election, one should think, must approve themselves to every pious heart. But, O my soul, if truth so bright should dazzle and confound thy sight, yet still his written will obey and wait the great decisive day.

34:52 - 35:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Preach the gospel because God commands it, needing no higher motive than obedience to His mandate.

He uses the analogy of a king commanding rebellious subjects under sentence of death to cease rebellion and dwell in his palace, illustrating how God's command to repent is suffused with grace.

If there were no other text, I should rest the whole case upon Acts 17.30. But now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. What a gracious command!

49:27 - 49:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Preach the gospel because God commands it, needing no higher motive than obedience to His mandate.

Martin reflects on Jeremiah's command to preach despite knowing the people wouldn't listen, emphasizing that God's command is sufficient warrant for preaching, regardless of perceived success.

The command is diffused with, is suffused with grace. In Jeremiah 17, in Jeremiah 7, 27, God told the prophet to go out and preach and then he says, I've got good news for you, they're not going to hear you, but tell them anyway. I was struck with that. We're reading through Jeremiah in our prayer meeting and here God commands him to go preach to the people and then he gives them a wonderful promise of success.

50:30 - 50:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines three bases for this indiscriminate offer: the clear command of God to all men to repent, the expressed desire of God for men's salvation (seen in His goodness and…

He uses the analogy of inviting someone to a table spread with good things, where the intent is clearly for them to be fed and enjoy, to illustrate God's sincere desire for men's repentance when He showers them with goodness.

It's like my inviting you to my table and spreading it with good things and saying, but I don't really desire that you be full and enjoy them. No, no. The whole intent of spreading the table is I delight in having you fed to the full. I believe this is the strain of the Apostle's argument here at this point.

54:04 - 54:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If you had any spiritual sensitivity, you would understand that there was a genuine, expressed desire of God for the salvation of all that were in that city. And you'd be reading rightly the revelation of God made in Jes…

Martin critiques the effeminate portrayal of Christ in 'Solomon's Head of Christ' pictures, arguing it distorts the totality of Christ's person and contributes to an anemic concept of Him.

But the whole drift of the scriptural revelation is that God has spoken with greatest clarity in his Son, in the enfleshment, in the enfleshment of the second person of the Trinity. Now I ask this very simple question. If you were to see the Lord Jesus as one of his disciples, and whether they were there to behold this, I don't know if the context indicates very clearly, it would seem to indicate that they saw this. And you beheld the Son of God without a trace of Solomon's head of Christ effeminacy.

55:57 - 56:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If you had any spiritual sensitivity, you would understand that there was a genuine, expressed desire of God for the salvation of all that were in that city. And you'd be reading rightly the revelation of God made in Jes…

He vividly describes Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, with heaving back and muffled sobs, to impress upon the listener the profound, genuine desire of God for the salvation of the city.

But now you picture the Lord Jesus coming into Jerusalem. And as he looks over the city, you see him drop his head and you watch his back begin to heave with sighs of brokenness. And you hear the muffled restrained sobs. And you see the tears coursing down his holy face.

56:58 - 57:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If you had any spiritual sensitivity, you would understand that there was a genuine, expressed desire of God for the salvation of all that were in that city. And you'd be reading rightly the revelation of God made in Jes…

The analogy of someone knocking at a door is used to explain Revelation 3:20, emphasizing that knocking implies a desire to enter, thus illustrating Christ's genuine desire for men to open their hearts to Him.

What does anyone knock at your door for? Not for exercise. He wants in. He wants in.

59:31 - 59:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not confuse inviting men to Christ with inviting them to any place in the church or any physical act.

Martin recounts a controversy at a conference where he asserted that 'coming to Christ' is not a physical act, but a spiritual one, highlighting the danger of equating spiritual invitation with physical gymnastics.

which amused you at other times will be forgotten your soul will go forth with your words and while your heart yearns for poor sinners you'll not hesitate a moment whether you ought to warn them of their danger or not maybe this is the problem some of you have had you're hiding your calloused hiding your calloused heart behind some theological tiptoeing if you have a broken heart for sinners your reflex action in the presence of sinners will be to warn entreat please exhort invite them to the Savior and then I conclude with one last exhortation please don't confuse inviting men to Christ with ...

66:57 - 68:26 Read in full sermon