In Whom Is It Found?

The point: Listen to the voices of confirmation from the past to understand that the emphasis on justification is not distorted or peculiar.

Martin uses the analogy of building a house (foundation, walls, roof) to explain why he needs to review previous sermon material before moving to new applications. The 'roof of application' cannot hang on air but must rest on the 'solid stuff' of exposition.

And that for this simple reason. I didn't finish the sermon. And what I did was to lay the foundation and raise the walls in the superstructure of God's truth. But I had no time to put the roof of application on that structure.

5:43 - 5:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines the sermon's structure: a brief overview of the first seven messages in the series, a detailed review of the eighth message, confirmation from historical voices…

Catechisms are described as acting like a fence, a grid, and a genuine dollar bill, serving to protect, organize, and authenticate truth against counterfeits.

Then in message seven, we began to deal with the substance, of this doctrine, and I said we would be using the larger catechism as our teaching framework, taking it phrase by phrase, breaking it down into seven major headings. I first of all gave a justification for the use of a catechism, and sought to underscore in your hearing that catechisms, well defined and well constructed act like a fence, a grid, and a real bonafide dollar bill, or twenty dollar bill by which we can assess the counterfeit. And then we began considering the author of justification, namely God himself. Here's the larger...

14:59 - 16:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We have nothing to do in this matter with men who through the fever of pride have lost the understanding of their own miserable condition.

Owen's description of men who have lost understanding of their miserable condition as 'drug men who are awake but feel nothing' is used to illustrate spiritual insensitivity to sin.

Until you know yourself better, Mr. Owen tells us, you will have no desire to know Christ. He goes on to say, wherefore, if we would either teach, which I'm attempting to do, or learn the doctrine of justification in a due manner, a clear apprehension of the greatness of our apostasy from God, a due sense of the guilt of sin, a deep experience of its power, all with respect to the holiness and law of God are necessary unto us. We have nothing to do in this matter with men who through the fever of pride have lost the understanding of their own miserable condition. He says they are like drug men...

29:35 - 30:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to win people to Christ by using the law of God to bring them to a conviction of their deepest need for forgiveness of sin, rather than 'packaging' Jesus to suit consumer desires.

Martin critiques modern church growth strategies by comparing them to marketing and packaging a product to suit consumer desires. He argues that Jesus has already been 'packaged' by God and should not be re-packaged by men.

the situation in our day is the user friendly situation in which church growth gurus tell us the consumer is king the consumer determines how we market our product how we advertise it how we package it and all the marketing and the packaging must be such that it tweaks the consumer so we are told we have got to find ways to package Jesus that make him desirable to modern men for example this generation is visually oriented it doesn't think in linear thought it doesn't read it watches pictures from morning till night this is the music generation obsessed with sounds as we heard in the previous ...

42:34 - 44:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek enough conviction of sin to drive you out of yourself, your works, and your performances, and into Christ alone as your hope of salvation.

The story of the rich young ruler is used as an example of someone who had 'felt needs' but was unwilling to smash his idol (money) to follow Christ on His terms, illustrating the necessity of turning from idols.

he was religious he was wealthy he had influence but he didn't have eternal life Lord what should I do to have eternal life Jesus begins to probe him with his law lists the last tables last commandments and the second table what do I lack yet he says smash your idols go sell that you have give to the poor come follow me I'm the true treasure you want eternal life it's in me you want life it's in me you've got to have me and you've got to have me on my terms and right now I see into your heart that your money is your God smash it don't go repaint it don't go chop off a toe smash it give it to t...

54:18 - 55:45 Read in full sermon