No Crisis Experience #1

Driving home: Now, in the history of the church, there have been many varieties of such teaching concerning a post-conversion crisis of spiritual experience. And I want you to tighten your seatbelts as I give you a broad overview of s…

Martin uses the analogy of a 'spiritual wonder drug' to describe the promise of a post-conversion crisis experience, suggesting it instantly transforms a spiritually anemic, unfruitful Christian into one of vigor and health.

Sort of a spiritual wonder drug. Here is a Christian. He has repented of sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ from death unto life. But there is much about him that is sickly in his spiritual life.

1:36 - 1:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now, in the history of the church, there have been many varieties of such teaching concerning a post-conversion crisis of spiritual experience. And I want you to tighten your seatbelts as I give you a broad overview of s…

He employs the analogy of a 'wonder chemical' for a failing car engine (hitting on few cylinders, black smoke, clattering) that promises to make it 'purr like a kitten' with one dose, illustrating the radical, immediate transformation promised by crisis experience teachings.

And those who hold forth the possibility of such an experience offer it, I say, as a kind of spiritual wonder drug that with one dose, hence the terms post-conversion crisis experience will take a man from the doldrums of spiritual dullness into this living, vibrant, fruitful, useful Christian experience. Or to change the imagery, it is like some kind of wonder chemical that promises the man who's driving his old eight-cylinder car hitting on only three or four cylinders black smoke, pouring out the tailpipe. The piston rings are obviously worn.

2:51 - 3:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be children tossed to and fro and do not be duped by the wiles of error.

This analogy is used to explain the 'sealing of the Holy Spirit' teaching: once one has the direct testimony of the Spirit (like having family in person), the 'evidences' of 1 John (like pictures) are no longer needed for assurance.

But this teaching says if you receive this post-conversion crisis experience of the sealing of the spirit this is God himself directly attesting to our spirits that we are his children. And now some would say we don't even need the evidences any more than when I come home from a trip I put away the pictures of my wife and my children and my grandchildren. I have them in person. I no longer need mere cardboard or paper representations of them.

19:43 - 20:18 Read in full sermon

The point: It is absolutely crucial to distinguish between that which God has sovereignly done in the history of his people and that which he has promised to do for us and commands us to seek from him as his people.

Martin tells a story of a father who, for unique reasons, grants his eldest child a six-month, pre-paid world tour that radically alters them. This illustrates the distinction between God's sovereign, unique dealings with some individuals and what He generally commands or promises to all His people.

You must make a distinction between that which God has sovereignly done and recorded in the scriptures with reference to some of his people and that which he commands us and promises us he will do for us as his people. Let me try to illustrate it. Here is a loving caring father of four children. They are all approximately two years apart and they are presently coming up on their twelfth fourteenth sixteenth and eighteenth birthdays.

28:29 - 29:02 Read in full sermon