Who We Are (Romans 3:9-20)

In this part of the sermon: Martin then turns to Romans 1-3 to demonstrate how Paul systematically establishes universal human guilt. He shows that Paul introduces the gospel (Romans 1:16-17) but immediately…

Martin explains Paul's desire to visit Rome as a strategic move to gain support for his mission to Spain, illustrating Paul's commitment to gospel frontiers.

After a general greeting in keeping with the ordinary framework of letter writing in the first century Greco-Roman world, and yet suffused with marvelous theological substance, the apostle in verse 8 of chapter 1 expresses his gratitude to God for the Roman Christians and for their witness that has spread through all the world. And then he tells them, that he has longed to see them, has purposed in the past to come and visit, but was not able to do so. But now he longs to be able to come to them, verse 13b, that he might have some fruit among them as among the rest of the Gentiles. Later on in...

17:53 - 19:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You never get excited about the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel till you've been sobered by the wrath of almighty God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.

Martin uses the analogy of someone being excited about a gospel promising a big bank account or a life without sorrow, to highlight why people might not be excited about a gospel that primarily reveals a way to be right with God, until they understand their need.

If you had told me your gospel reveals a way to have a big bank account, ha-ha, you'd turn me on. If you had told me you have a gospel in which is revealed a way to a life in which there is no crippling sorrow, a life in which there is no hardship and tribulation, then, Paul, I'd be excited. Why should I get excited about it? About a gospel that has as its central blessing the revelation, the display of how men can be right with God.

23:22 - 23:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Tremble before the wrath of God and ask if there is a way to avoid contending with such a God.

He uses the metaphor of God's infinite power 'harnessed to the chariot of wrath' and running over 'puny little men' to convey the terrifying reality of divine judgment.

The wrath and God together, infinite, omnipotent, almighty, and harness that to the chariot of wrath and run it up. All ugliness and all unrighteousness of mere puny little men.

25:50 - 26:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Allow your mouth to be stopped before God's indictment, not trying to make yourself an exception or spin tales of exemption based on body chemistry, genetics, or environment.

Martin describes Paul's argument in Romans as a 'mouth-stopping exercise,' where every person is silenced before God's indictment, illustrating the utter lack of excuses for sin.

Notice this graphic terminology. That every mouth may be stopped and all the world be brought under the judgment of God.

32:04 - 32:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all.

Martin quotes Owen's 'third thing that he says is essential' for studying justification: a clear apprehension and due sense of our apostasy, depravity, guilt of sin, and the law's severity, which Paul demonstrates in Romans 1-3.

And then his third thing that he says is essential. If you're going to study the doctrine if you're going to study this doctrine and profit from it, he says thirdly, this is what you must have, a clear apprehension, that's understanding and laying hold, and due sense, that's felt religious experience. It's got to be not only known cognitively, but felt experientially. A clear apprehension and due sense of the greatness of our approach of apostasy from God, of the deprivation of our natures thereby, of the power and guilt of sin, of the holiness and severity of the law are necessary unto a righ...

41:22 - 42:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all.

He quotes Owen's profound statement, 'Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all,' to underscore the necessity of self-knowledge for spiritual desire.

The rules which he has given us, the method which he prescribes, and the ends that he designs are those which we shall choose to follow. And he lays it down in general that the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith, the just shall live by faith, but he declares not in particular the causes, the nature, the way of our justification until he has fully evinced that all men are shut up under the state of sin and manifested how deplorable their condition is thereby. And in the ignorance of these things, in the denying or palliating of them, he lays, he lays the foundation of all mis...

42:44 - 43:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all.

Martin quotes Buchanan, who states that the 'best preparation' for studying justification is 'a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God,' emphasizing deep conviction of sin's reality, power, and guilt.

The best preparation for the study of this doctrine is neither great intellectual ability nor much scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. Sound like Owen, doesn't it? What's the grand pre-reference requisite to study this doctrine with profit? A sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God.

44:40 - 45:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all.

He quotes Buchanan's observation that 'partial and defective views of sin have always been associated with partial and defective views of salvation,' highlighting the historical and personal consequences of underestimating sin.

He says further on in this introductory chapter, no, not the introductory, further on in the book, it might be shown both from the general history of the church and the personal experience of individuals that in both cases alike, partial and defective views of sin have always been associated with partial and defective views of salvation. He goes on, He goes on to say that all of the deviations from apostolic doctrine from the days of the apostles down to his own day in the 19th century had their roots in defective views of sin. Such has been the experience of the church as a collective body an...

46:35 - 47:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: To further confirm his point, Martin presents extensive quotations from John Owen, James Buchanan, William Cunningham, and John Murray. These historical theologians unanimously…

Martin quotes Cunningham, who notes the 'natural tendency of men is to consider the guilt incurred by the violation of God's law as a trivial matter,' illustrating how people downplay sin.

That's the witness of Buchanan. And then the witness of Cunningham in his book called Historical Theology, another 19th century giant in Scotland. He says the natural tendency of men is to consider the guilt incurred by the violation of God's law as a trivial matter. Yeah, we're all sinners.

47:44 - 48:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: This is the reason why the grand article of justification does not ring the bells in the innermost depths of our spirit. This is the reason why the gospel of justification is to such an extent a meaningless sound in the …

Martin recounts meeting a man who claimed to be a Christian but only knew 'I believe he's for good,' illustrating a vague, unbiblical understanding of Christ due to a lack of conviction of sin.

Like the man I met years ago. He said, are you a Christian? Oh, yes, sir. I accepted Christ so many years ago.

49:36 - 49:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: This is the reason why the grand article of justification does not ring the bells in the innermost depths of our spirit. This is the reason why the gospel of justification is to such an extent a meaningless sound in the …

He quotes John Murray, who states that a failure to entertain the 'gravity of the fact of our sin' leads to justification being a 'meaningless sound in the world and in the church of the present hour,' connecting the lack of conviction to the gospel's diminished impact.

Why? No definite biblical view and experience of the reality of what it is to be a sinner. All false conceptions of the system of Christian doctrine are based upon inadequate and erroneous views and impressions of the nature and effects of the fall. Then, more recently, man of beloved memory, Professor John Murray, too frequently we fail to entertain the gravity of the fact of our sin.

50:24 - 50:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not let the world rob you of the necessary exercise of thinking about these realities until they grip you.

Martin quotes lines from Charles Wesley's hymns ('And can it be that I should gain...' and 'Long my imprisoned spirit lay...') to illustrate the exuberant praise that arises from a deep understanding of sin and the blessedness of justification.

Died he for me who caused his shame? For me, who him to death pursued amazing love? And can it be that thou my God should die for me? No condemnation now I dread. Dear people, it was the reality of the context of this doctrine when it sunk into the hearts of multitudes in the evangelical awakening and they heard the great truth of justifying righteousness provided in Jesus Christ and received by faith. That's what gave birth. To this kind of hymnody of Wesley's. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound by sin in nature's night. Thine eye

56:20 - 57:11 Read in full sermon