Not Under Law? (Romans 6:14b)

The point: Beware of erroneous use of scripture that undermines spiritual stability and persevering faith.

Compares willful ignorance of God's truth to a man covering his eyes under a cloudless sky and claiming he can't see, illustrating how people destroy themselves by rejecting clear truth.

It's Peter who uses that very terminology in an earlier chapter. He says, the people are willfully ignorant of certain things. It's like the man who says, I can't see anything standing out under the light of the sun under a cloudless sky, but he's taken his hands and clapped them over his closed eyes and says, I can see nothing. Now it's tragic.

5:35 - 6:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of erroneous use of scripture that undermines spiritual stability and persevering faith.

States it's possible to 'pave your own way to hell out of the blocks of text of scripture,' emphasizing the danger of twisting God's Word.

But here we have a case where people take the very light of scripture and turn it into an instrument of self-destruction. Which things, he says, ignorant and unstable people twist as they do the other scriptures to their own destruction. It's possible to pave your own way to hell out of the blocks of text of scripture. Now that's what this passage affirms.

6:10 - 6:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Surely grace can't change what's holy. It can't change what is just and what is good. For what is holy and just and good is a reflection of the very changeless character of God.

Illustrates how cultists use isolated verses (e.g., 'My Father is greater than I') to overturn the clear biblical teaching on the deity of Christ, warning against a similar approach to difficult passages.

You establish with a Jehovah's Witness from John 1, 1, In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was the Word. He was with God and the Word was God. You take that person to another passage where Jesus says, I and my Father are one.

24:42 - 24:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Cling to the bulk of biblical teaching on a subject and be prepared to wait for light on isolated passages that seem to contradict it.

Illustrates how some Christians use passages like 'how oft would I have gathered you, and you would not' to deny effectual calling, showing the danger of letting one passage overturn overarching doctrine.

When you make it known to a Christian friend that you believe the Bible teaches in God's certain, effectual gathering of his own people to himself, that there is an effectual calling taught in the Bible, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What will such a person do? He'll say, wait a minute. Didn't Jesus say when he wailed, Over Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you, and you would not?

25:26 - 25:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If a preacher never gets accused of preaching doctrine that promotes a life of sin, he's not preaching the biblical gospel.

Uses the metaphor of a 'mountain range of sin' to illustrate the logic that if grace superabounds where sin abounds, one might conclude that continuing in sin magnifies grace.

That grace might abound. If all together we are raising up a mountain range of sin that goes from two feet to twenty thousand feet, why not all be committed to doubling our mountain of sin in the mountain range amongst us because wherever sin is abounding, grace goes higher and beyond it. You see the logic? If these two things, they're true, you're not saved by what you do.

43:14 - 43:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Grasp the gospel: salvation rests totally, solely, exclusively upon the obedience of Jesus Christ, received by faith alone.

States that if a preacher never gets accused of teaching a doctrine that promotes a life of sin, he's not preaching the biblical gospel, highlighting the offense of free grace.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? You see, once a man or woman understands the gospel, once a preacher preaches the biblical gospel, it won't be long before somebody accuses him, of teaching a doctrine that promotes a life of sin. If a preacher never gets accused of preaching doctrine that promotes a life of sin, he's not preaching the biblical gospel.

44:27 - 45:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Grasp the gospel: salvation rests totally, solely, exclusively upon the obedience of Jesus Christ, received by faith alone.

Mentions that the Roman Catholic Church's Council of Trent pronounced an anathema on anyone preaching salvation by Christ alone through faith alone, personally identifying with this 'curse' for preaching the biblical gospel.

That's why the Roman Catholic Church in her official doctrinal pronouncements in the Council of Trent pronounced an anathema upon Albert N. Martin for preaching what he preached this morning. A curse is pronounced on anyone who says, our salvation rests solely upon the work of Christ and is received by faith alone. I'm under the curse of Rome this morning.

45:41 - 46:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that the context of Romans 6:14b is a flat refusal to allow salvation by grace to lead to indifference to sin. The fundamental point is that believers have 'died…

Describes his daily life in his study, shoveling snow, smelling supper, and then contrasts it with what would happen if he died that afternoon, illustrating the radical, irreversible separation from a realm that death brings.

You see, I'm alive today. I'm living in God's world here in a little spot of planet Earth called northern New Jersey. It is in this sphere that I carry out my life, where I shoveled my snow and where I pushed or followed behind a snowblower. Where I sprinkled salt to make the walkways safety.

56:04 - 56:27 Read in full sermon