The Enunciation of God's Changeless Standard #2

The point: Consider if there is any truth for which you would be willing to die.

Martin distinguishes between being willing to die for a person (which many might do) and being willing to die for a truth, emphasizing the deeper commitment required for the latter, as exemplified by Paul.

Now, I'm not asking you, is there any person for whom you'd be willing to die? I hope most of us, could answer that question relatively quickly and confidently and name those people for whom, if duty called upon us to do it, in the strength of Christ, we would be willing to die. To seal our professed love and friendship with the blood that courses through our own veins. But I'm not asking you, is there any person for whom you would be willing to die?

3:09 - 3:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that this sermon is part of a series on the church's constitutional commitments, specifically focusing on the third category: commitment to the proclamation of…

Martin uses the imagery of a circle and arrows (upward for worship, inward for edification, outward for evangelism) to organize the God-appointed activities of the church, making the complex structure memorable.

that all-encompassing and supreme purpose, and I organize the ones identified in our Constitution under the imagery of the circle and the arrows. And if I'm remembered for nothing else through this series, I'll be the circle and arrows preacher. And that's fine. I don't mind if it sticks in your head and filters into your heart. I don't mind being called the circles and arrows preacher. I've been called a lot worse things in my 40-plus years of preaching, so being called a circles and arrow preacher will not upset me. And in that, I've tried to capture the biblical truths which are highlighted...

8:09 - 8:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the current sermon's focus: the church's commitment to proclaiming God's changeless method of making sinners right with Him, emphasizing that only sinners…

He uses the metaphor of a 'ball of wax' to convey the integrated and coherent nature of God's truth as expressed in the church's constitution and the gospel.

We want them to know how they can be made right with God. And you see, it's only sinners who know they aren't right with God by nature, and who get right with God by grace, that can fulfill the purpose of glorifying the God of the Scriptures. It all hangs together like a ball of wax. I never realized how much wisdom God gave to people that framed our Constitution.

16:42 - 17:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: At the foundation of that affirmation is the persuasion that God himself and God alone can determine how law-breaking, hell-deserving, spiritually dead sinners can get right with him.

Martin uses the analogy of blind, dead, rebellious sinners trying to devise a way to be right with God to highlight the utter folly and impossibility of man saving himself.

Blind, dead, rebels. Who in the world are we to sit down at a table, look ourselves in the mirror and say, Now come up with what you think might be a good way to be right with God. Or to gather our fellow blind, dead, rebellious sinners and say, Let's come up with a conference statement of how we can be right with God. I hope you see the absolute folly of the very suggestion.

19:01 - 19:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin contrasts false religions' attempts to resolve the dilemma of sin (either diminishing God's attributes or elevating man's ability) with the gospel, which maintains God's…

He illustrates how false religions 'pare God down' by emphasizing His love to the exclusion of His holiness, justice, and righteousness, suggesting His love 'swallows up' other attributes.

They either pare God down to be something less than impeccably righteous and holy and just. And they say God is love. And His love sort of leaps out of his heart and swallows up and submerges. His righteousness and His justice, and God can just wave His hand and say, I'll forgive all my children because I love them.

21:01 - 21:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin contrasts false religions' attempts to resolve the dilemma of sin (either diminishing God's attributes or elevating man's ability) with the gospel, which maintains God's…

He illustrates how false religions 'pick man up' by denying his spiritual blindness and death, suggesting he only needs 'spiritual laser treatment' or 'religious vitamins and training' to be well.

But they pick man up to a plane that he ain't. You're not really spiritually blind.

21:54 - 22:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines the gospel as a message of divinely revealed, objective, inscripturated truth, comprised of 'magnificent indicatives' (what God has done in Christ) and 'magisterial…

Martin uses the analogy of counting four fingers whether in space, under the sea, or in heaven, to illustrate the objective, unchanging, and universal nature of gospel truth, regardless of culture or philosophy.

It didn't come out of the stuff of our own heads or the head of some other fellow blind sinner. God's told us. Objective, what we mean is it's the same wherever you may find it. For example, if I were somehow to qualify to be shot up into orbit and be on Challenger or one of the other spaceships, and I were to sit there during a moment of relaxation and stick up two fingers on my right hand and two on my left and count them, how many would I get up there in space?

40:51 - 41:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines the gospel as a message of divinely revealed, objective, inscripturated truth, comprised of 'magnificent indicatives' (what God has done in Christ) and 'magisterial…

He provides a series of simple 'indicative' statements about his own actions (e.g., 'I left the back room,' 'I climbed the stairs') to clarify what an indicative verb is before applying it to the gospel.

An indicative is the use of a verb that simply states what is, what happened and what is. For example, I'll give you five or six indicatives. At 11 o'clock, I left the back room with my fellow elders and made my entrance through the door to your left and my right. That's an indicative statement.

43:33 - 43:52 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not savingly united to Christ, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today.

Martin shares a personal story of standing by his children's cribs, contemplating that these little beings were 'made of the stuff of unendingness,' to impress upon listeners the sobering reality of eternal existence.

It's one of the most sobering thoughts that a human mind can contemplate. You'll never forget standing by the crib of my children when they were brought home from the hospital and say, that little being in the crib is made of the stuff of unending. And in God's will, I've had a part in bringing into the world something made of the stuff of unendingness. A sobering thought.

51:39 - 52:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin directly addresses unconverted listeners, urging them to consider their 'never-dying being' and the irreversible state of hell, pleading with them to repent and believe the…

He recounts an anecdote of a man falling four stories to his death, instantly launched into 'an irreversible state of unendingness,' to emphasize the suddenness and finality of death for the unconverted.

I know of someone remotely connected with the church family, who in his place of business this week saw a man fall four stories splattered on the concrete apron below, dead. One minute his two pounds around his waist, the next minute launched into an irreversible state of unendingness. While you have breath in life and sanity, your state as an unconverted man, woman, boy or girl is not irreversibly fixed. Blessed be God.

53:52 - 54:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin directly addresses unconverted listeners, urging them to consider their 'never-dying being' and the irreversible state of hell, pleading with them to repent and believe the…

He alludes to the story of the rich man in Luke 16, who 'remembered' his life in torment, to warn unconverted listeners that the memory of this sermon might become a 'worm that never died' in hell.

The door of mercy is open. And as I reflected on this, I asked myself the question, Lord, if I plead again, and young people and teenagers and children and men and women and visitors go out indifferent to you and then up in hell, will they remember this morning, January 28th, the year 2001? My mind went immediately to Luke 16 where Jesus describes a man who died and in hell, lifted up his eyes. He was in torment and he said, send someone to put a drop of water on my tongue for I am tormented in these flames.

54:33 - 55:11 Read in full sermon