The Lordship Controversy, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds 1 Corinthians 10:1-5, highlighting Paul's didactic approach in recounting Israel's history before moving to exhortation in verse 6. He argues that this…

Martin uses the phrase 'dry as dust history' to describe 1 Corinthians 10:1-5, contrasting it with 'warm, hearty applications' to highlight that didactic, factual teaching is often perceived as less engaging but is foundational.

All these wonderful insights and warm, hearty applications to the heart. You say, Pastor, you must have read a different section than the one I heard. No, this is dry as dust history. Isn't it?

5:59 - 6:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds 1 Corinthians 10:1-5, highlighting Paul's didactic approach in recounting Israel's history before moving to exhortation in verse 6. He argues that this…

He uses the metaphor of stirring up facts from 'dusty file drawers of the basement' and setting them 'before your eyeballs on the wall of your living room' to urge mental engagement with didactic material.

Paul says there are certain things concerning which I do not want you to be ignorant. If you don't have these facts in your head, I want to put them there. If they are there, I want you to stir them up from the dusty file drawers of the basement and set them before your eyeballs on the wall of your living room. He deals in what we would call purely didactic material.

6:18 - 6:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Learn to stop being mentally lazy during didactic teaching, or spiritual growth will be arrested.

Martin describes some congregants as 'mentally lazy' or 'spoiled rotten,' only liking sermons where the preacher is 'working up a sweat,' to challenge them to engage with didactic teaching even when it's not emotionally charged.

Now that's the framework I'm following. What I'm going to give you in the remainder of the class time this morning is going to be heavily didactic. And frankly, there are some of you that are mentally lazy. You only like it when the preacher's working up a sweat and trying to work you into a spiritual sweat.

7:33 - 7:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Be concerned about error and false teaching, as the devil establishes his kingdom through lies and error.

He cites John MacArthur's book as an example of a popular evangelical work addressing the Lordship issue, representing one side of the debate.

I hold in my hands two very popular evangelical books. One by...

10:19 - 10:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Be concerned about error and false teaching, as the devil establishes his kingdom through lies and error.

He cites Charles Ryrie's book as an example of a popular evangelical work addressing the Lordship issue, representing the opposing side of the debate.

contemporary evangelicalism. And on the book jacket, similar comments from R.C. Spruill and from a David Hawking, Radio Bible's teacher of the Biola Bible Hour. Then a year later, in 1989, Dr. Charles Ryrie, formerly professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, came out with a book, and the copyright is 1989. And it has a foreword by Warren Wiersbe, for years, pastor of the historic Moody Bible Institute, Bible teacher on the Back to God Hour that reaches literally millions of people around the world every day. And in the book jacket, we read this. Dr. Ryrie answers key and practical questions su...

11:22 - 12:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Be concerned about error and false teaching, as the devil establishes his kingdom through lies and error.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'dismantling the kingdom of Satan' to emphasize that combating error, even subtle 'wiles of error,' is crucial for the establishment of Christ's kingdom.

That not only is it possible, but in many cases it is actually true that sinners truly believe upon Christ to the saving of their souls and have not yet decided the issue, shall I bow to the authority of Christ and be prepared to live by the rule and the way of Christ. Now, I say there is widespread confusion, current discussion and debate on the issue, but it is not the only issue that is relevant to the world. This is a question that is, how can we current discussion and debate on the issue and since the devil establishes and maintains his kingdom by error and by lie John 8 44 year of your f...

13:53 - 15:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Be established in the truth so that you can discern errors in theological books and teachings.

He uses the phrase 'embalmed in printer's ink' to refer to Ryrie's written arguments, stating that they represent a 'deflection from the teaching of Holy Scripture' when examined in light of God's Word.

being established in the truth so that you as an ordinary believer could pick up Charles Ryrie's book and have sufficient biblical discernment and bible knowledge to see the errors that oft times are passed with an exegetical and a theological slight of hand now I am not saying a thing about the man's moral character make that very plain I am not slandering his morals I am not slandering his moral character I am not in any way imputing anything evil to the man's motives but looking at what he has embalmed in printer's ink in the light of the word of God it is a deflection from the teaching of ...

16:44 - 18:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Elders must be able to exhort in sound teaching and convict those who speak against the truth.

Martin uses the legal metaphor of bringing 'gainsayers' into the 'court of an unbiased, unrighteous, and unrighteous conscience' to 'send the criminal out with the sentence of guilty' to describe the elder's task of refuting error convincingly.

we are to be known as trustworthy men who hold to the faithful word of God we are to be known as trustworthy men who hold to the faithful word of God we are not originators of truth we do not traffic in novelties the teaching and we must have an ability both intellectually, morally, and in terms of our ability to communicate to others. The word must be able involves all three things. It involves the head, intellectual grasp, the heart, moral courage, and love, and the mouth. The ability to set forth these things clearly, and notice the two prongs, that he may be able both to exhort, to encoura...

18:10 - 19:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Insist that a collegian who wants to receive Christ must break off an immoral relationship, rather than allowing them to continue in sin.

He uses the idiom 'tempest in a theological teapot' to dismiss the idea that the Lordship issue is minor, asserting its profound, life-and-death importance.

kingdom of heaven. Break off your fornication or burn in hell. This is a matter of life and death. This is not a tempest in a theological teapot. So there's the necessity for addressing the issue. Secondly, I want to help you to identify the heart of the issue.

23:58 - 24:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To the extent to which I actually do surrender. So to make sure that the believing professed convert does not mix grace and works, tell him, surrender has nothing to do with your saving response to Christ.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'heat' and 'little light' in debates, where 'misty clouds' obscure the issue, to explain his goal of 'blow[ing] the clouds away' and making the issue 'stand out in bold relief.'

Now, whenever you come to matter of of discussion and debate, because where there's heat, there often is little light. The more heat there is, the less light there is. And when you come into a debated issue, so often if the issue is found within this circle, the heat that comes from strongly felt opinions can often act like sort of misty clouds, and somewhere in there you see the dim outline of what the particular issue is. Well, what I want to do is to try to blow the clouds away and make the issue itself stand out in bold relief. What precisely are we talking about when we take up the subjec...

24:21 - 25:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To the extent to which I actually do surrender. So to make sure that the believing professed convert does not mix grace and works, tell him, surrender has nothing to do with your saving response to Christ.

Martin quotes Charles Ryrie's analogy of 'human works are like termites in God's structure of grace' to set up his critique of Ryrie's application of this principle to surrender.

Not this, not that. Not this, not that. Not this, not this. But this, but this, but this, but this. And that's helpful to precise thought. All right? What are we not dealing with? Well, let me set before you three things that we're not dealing with. Number one, it is not a question of whether salvation is all of grace, or whether it is grace plus the merit of human endeavor. It is not a question of whether salvation is all of grace, or whether it is grace plus the merit of human endeavor. Now, it's at this point that Dr. Ryrie greatly urges. Now, that's a serious charge to make, and I'm making...

25:53 - 27:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To the extent to which I actually do surrender. So to make sure that the believing professed convert does not mix grace and works, tell him, surrender has nothing to do with your saving response to Christ.

Martin uses Ryrie's metaphor of 'termites' to argue that, contrary to Ryrie, insisting on surrender in saving faith does not 'let loose a whole herd of termites' to erode grace, but rather upholds it.

To the extent to which I actually do surrender. So to make sure that the believing professed convert does not mix grace and works, tell him, surrender has nothing to do with your saving response to Christ. And he asserts that if we insist to the sinner, you must surrender to the Christ whom you receive, that the very essence of faith is the whole heart going out to the whole Christ. Without reservation, we are letting loose a whole herd of termites to erode the foundation of salvation by grace. No, dear people, no one believes I trust more firmly than we do that salvation is all of grace from ...

27:54 - 28:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: To the extent to which I actually do surrender. So to make sure that the believing professed convert does not mix grace and works, tell him, surrender has nothing to do with your saving response to Christ.

He uses the metaphor of salvation having its 'tap roots in grace' to emphasize that grace is foundational from origin to consummation.

When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. And as it has its tap roots in grace, its grounds in grace, its conferral in grace, when we stand with Christ in glory, then the ancient prophecy will be fulfilled. They shall bring forth the top stone thereof, saying grace, grace, grace unto it. So that's not the issue of whether or not salvation is all of grace, for grace plus the merit of our surrender.

29:49 - 30:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin clarifies the Lordship issue by first stating what it is not: it is not about salvation by grace plus works, the amount of knowledge required at conversion, or whether true…

The example of Apollos in Acts 18, who initially knew only up to John the Baptist's death, is used to show that the amount of cognitive truth known at conversion can be limited, yet true submission to Christ's Lordship can still be present.

He was a truly converted man, truly submissive to the lordship of Christ. And when Priscilla and Aquila took him aside, showed him the way of God more perfectly, he showed the disposition of his heart, not by defending his ignorance, but by welcoming the new truth. So it's not a question of saying, unless people have heard about the lordship of Christ, and were pressed clearly and distinctly in their conversion complex with the necessity of yielding to Christ as Lord, then we're reckoning all such people to the end. All those numerous, so many people, all those millions who are, axiom 가자, twen...

32:03 - 32:49 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin clarifies the Lordship issue by first stating what it is not: it is not about salvation by grace plus works, the amount of knowledge required at conversion, or whether true…

The backsliding of the Apostle Peter, specifically his prejudice against Gentiles and later withdrawal from them, is used to illustrate that true Christians can deny Christ's Lordship in practical ways without negating their salvation.

The Bible records the backslidings of David. The Bible records the backsliding of the Apostle Peter. So full of prejudice was he that God had to give him a vision, repeated twice. It was repeated twice.

34:15 - 34:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin clarifies the Lordship issue by first stating what it is not: it is not about salvation by grace plus works, the amount of knowledge required at conversion, or whether true…

Martin accuses Ryrie of making a 'straw man' out of the issue of Christians sinning, implying Ryrie misrepresents the Lordship position to easily refute it.

But in that particular area, he was denying in a practical way the Lordship of Christ. So that's not the issue. And it's a shame that someone who should know better, as Dr. Ryrie really makes a straw man out of that issue.

35:09 - 35:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Can a sinner stretch out one hand to take the benefits of the cross of Christ while the other hand is clenched in a fist of defiance saying, I will not bow, to the rule, to the crown, and to the scepter of Christ? That i…

He uses the vivid metaphor of a sinner stretching out one hand for the benefits of the cross while the other hand is a 'clenched fist of defiance' against Christ's rule, to define the core of the Lordship controversy.

Can a sinner stretch out one hand to take the benefits of the cross of Christ while the other hand is clenched in a fist of defiance saying, I will not bow, to the rule, to the crown, and to the scepter of Christ? That is the issue. That's the issue.

36:54 - 37:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Can a sinner stretch out one hand to take the benefits of the cross of Christ while the other hand is clenched in a fist of defiance saying, I will not bow, to the rule, to the crown, and to the scepter of Christ? That i…

He uses the image of 'two clenched fists' and the language of 'we will not have this Man to reign over us' to illustrate the natural rebellion of the carnal mind against God.

Romans 8, 7. Carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. The language of every native heart finding expression in both fists is we will not have this.

37:25 - 37:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And if God only gave a sinner in his drawing work a disposition to come to Christ for pardon without changing his disposition of rebellion to Christ Almighty God, makes the blood of his son a minister of unrighteousness …

Martin repeatedly warns against letting 'smoke cloud you' or 'smoke get in your eyes' to urge listeners to focus on the core questions of the Lordship issue without distraction.

Can't read you. You see the issue? That's the issue. And don't let any other smoke cloud you.

41:34 - 41:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The implication being discipleship is not an advanced stage of spiritual graduate school. To be a true disciple is to be a true believer.

Martin uses the colloquial phrase 'no way, Jose' to emphatically state MacArthur's position that a perpetually carnal Christian is not a true Christian, contrasting it with Ryrie's view.

A true Christian in whom the dominant characteristic over the long haul is carnality? That's a very critical question. Fiery answers, yes. He said, oh, there'll be some fruit. Must be some fruit. But the basic answer is, there can be precious little over precious long time and still be a Christian. MacArthur says, no way, Jose. Both ain't right.

45:34 - 46:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The implication being discipleship is not an advanced stage of spiritual graduate school. To be a true disciple is to be a true believer.

He uses the term 'straw dummy' to refer to a simplistic or easily refutable definition of repentance, specifically the idea that it's merely a change of mind about Christ.

And the Bible doesn't teach both. And then the third related question is, can true faith be exercised divorced from repentance? Can true faith be exercised divorced from repentance? And I tell you, it's pathetic. I reread or read fully for the first time in preparation for today, Ryrie's chapter on repentance. And I've heard, you've heard me say that some people teach that repentance is basically just a change of mind about Christ where once you didn't look at him and trust him, now you do. And that's all the repentance required of in conjunction with the gospel. If you think that's a straw du...

46:03 - 46:41 Read in full sermon