Radical Break with the Dominion of Sin

The point: Plead that the Spirit would be given to speak a word that is as pointed and personal as though there were no other person.

Martin uses the contemporary crisis in American education, where graduates are semi-literate, to illustrate the need for a 'back to basics' approach in the church regarding fundamental biblical principles.

We thank you, we thank you, we thank you, we thank you, we thank you, we thank you, we thank you, and with all of the apparent professional competitiveness, of duly qualified and certified teachers, our educational mills are grinding out semi-literates by the millions. We have high school graduates who can neither read nor write, many of them above the second or third grade level. I have letters on my desk continually from college graduates, some of them with advanced degrees, who cannot construct sentences, who know little or little of English grammar, who are ignorant of the ABCs of American...

3:10 - 4:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, everyone that commits sin is the slave.

He recounts the Jews' boast of never being in bondage, despite Roman occupation, to highlight their willful blindness to their physical and spiritual slavery, paralleling it to spiritual self-deception.

We talk about forgetting history. We're in such bondage that the Scripture says their groan, their cries came into the ear of God in heaven. They conveniently forgot. They were conveniently forgetting that right now on any given day, walking down a street in Jerusalem, a Roman soldier could tap him on the shoulder and say, hey, bucko, take my knapsack.

17:14 - 17:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, everyone that commits sin is the slave.

Martin contrasts the modern church growth movement's emphasis on homogeneous churches with the gospel's genius of uniting diverse backgrounds (Jew and Gentile) into one new man, as seen in the Roman church.

And so when I assume in my statement and say that I want to prove that a radical break with the dominion of sin is an indispensable accompaniment of true conversion, and I'm obviously assuming that prior to true conversion, every one of us is the slave of sin, I am standing on the ground marked out by the Son of God. For He said verily, verily, everyone, young, old, privileged or unprivileged, in terms of religious knowledge and background, everyone who commits sin is the bond-slave of sin. Second passage, Romans chapter 6. Paul is writing to a church in a cosmopolitan area with people of vari...

19:46 - 21:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that defying God, His gospel, and being indifferent to His Son means you have no freedom and are responding to the devil's control.

He uses the metaphor of a 'snared snake' and the devil 'jerking the noose around your neck' to vividly portray the bondage of those who think they are free but are actually captive to the devil's will.

where the victories won or lost so Timothy you carry on your task with a Christ like spirit with the truth of God in forbearance correcting them that oppose themselves if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil and this is one of the most pathetic statements in all of scripture having been taken captive by him unto his will Timothy you are dealing with people who are the ensnared snake and . . . where he tugs the rope . . .

30:11 - 31:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Sin shall not, doesn't say sin ought not, sin may eventually not have, sin shall not literally exercise Lordship over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.

Martin uses the metaphor of the Holy Spirit 'casting the elect, gospel hearer into the very mold of the gospel' to illustrate how conversion shapes a person into conformity with its liberating truths.

But thanks be to God that whereas ye were the slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching where unto you were delivered. And that is the proper rendering. It's a beautiful picture of what happens under the gospel. The Holy Spirit cast the elect, gospel hearer into the very mold of the gospel.

40:28 - 40:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Holy Ghost isn't limited. Your domestic dysfunctional background. The Holy Ghost. Your wacky hormones and your PMS. And by your burgeoning change of life disruptions. Our Heavenly Father knows our frame. He remembers…

He challenges excuses for ongoing sin (e.g., dysfunctional background, 'wacky hormones,' PMS) by asserting that God makes no exceptions in breaking sin's dominion, and His grace is sufficient for all.

This is not exhortation. It is spiritual history. For as of those who had sunk into the depths of Romans 1, you were made. You became righteousness. They set a lower standard till you catch up with your moral consciousness. What about those who had no models? What about those who had no models of a stable home?

41:32 - 42:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop making excuses for unloving behavior, such as blaming your father's example, and instead obey Christ as your new Master.

He gives the example of a husband excusing his unloving behavior by blaming his father's example, arguing that such excuses are invalid for a Christian who has a new Master in Christ.

And the Holy Ghost does not say. You have leave to still have all the marks of being a slave to a sour, sullen, withdrawal-ish temperament because you've got PMS. Show me. I don't know how to love a wife.

43:28 - 44:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using 1 Corinthians 6, Martin demonstrates that the Corinthian believers, despite their debauched past, were 'washed, sanctified, and justified' in Christ, signifying a definitive…

He mentions that the word 'Corinthianized' was coined to describe something truly debauched, illustrating the extreme moral climate from which many Corinthian believers were saved.

if you want to say something was really debauched you'd say it was corinthianized they had bad examples bad patterns and many of them had been sucked into the orbit of that lifestyle and paul writes in first corinthians six nine first corinthians six nine no he thought that the unrighteous show marketing here at the king of god he knows this year either for nicotine's that's the generic word for sexual impurity of all kinds people believe their sexual capacities playground run according to the rules but impulses it is for nicotine's nor idolaters nor adults nor go to have the not the slo-mo ta...

50:06 - 51:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using 1 Corinthians 6, Martin demonstrates that the Corinthian believers, despite their debauched past, were 'washed, sanctified, and justified' in Christ, signifying a definitive…

He quotes 'Gernal' (likely a mispronunciation of a name or a saying) about needing to show one's pedigree by daring to be holy, emphasizing that true identity in Christ is proven by a life of holiness.

All I'm issuing this morning. Say with Gernal. Blood in thy veins. Unless thou can show thy pedigree.

55:40 - 55:54 Read in full sermon

The point: If you name the name of Christ, you must be continually departing from iniquity, signifying that sin and you are 'done'.

He uses the metaphor of a 'divorce' from sin, with 'thrones and rings away,' to describe the decisive break with iniquity that accompanies true conversion.

It will be manifested due to sin and holiness in general. And that attitude. The air of divorce. Thrones and rings away.

66:30 - 67:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Your particular dominant sin must be dealt with at any cost, or you will go to hell.

He references Jesus's teaching about plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand to illustrate the radical measures required to deal with a peculiar dominant sin, emphasizing that failure to do so leads to hell.

Well, then go ahead and pluck your eyes out, because as long as the sin of adultery dominates in your heart, the dominion of sin has not been broken. You're on your way to hell and you'll be cast into hell. Far better. Take you at your word.

68:21 - 68:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Plant both hands on the plow and commit fully to Christ, saying 'sink or swim, live or die,' and let nothing but Christ's glory matter.

He uses the vivid image of being 'chopped off until I got no feet... no knees' and left with 'nothing but Christ's glory' to convey the absolute, all-consuming commitment required to break sin's dominion.

You've never once planted both hands on the plow and said sink or swim, live or die. Chop me off until I got no feet. Cut me off to my knees. Cut me off to my knees and leave me nothing but Christ's glory, Christ's king.

71:03 - 71:26 Read in full sermon

The point: If you realize you don't have a radical break with sin's dominion, get honest today and run to Christ for liberty, not despair.

He shares an anecdote from his time in Pentecostalism, where the question 'Brother, are you bound?' was used to call people to Christ for freedom, applying it to those still enslaved by sin.

A passage like Isaiah 61, And you look at him of whom it is said, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he hath anointed me to preach liberty to the castles and to them that are bound. I often quote Pentecostalism. There's one I love that I picked up when I sojourned in Pentecostalism for a while. Brother, are you bound?

73:23 - 73:49 Read in full sermon