Goals of this Study for the Unconverted

Driving home: In other words, at the heart of the biblical gospel is the revelation of how sinful man can be right with God. How guilty, hell-deserving, sinful men and women, boys and girls, Jews and Greeks, can have a righteousness t…

Martin uses the analogies of announcing a way to win the lottery or a miracle drug to illustrate how people are eager for earthly benefits but indifferent to the 'good news' of being right with God, highlighting their lack of concern for spiritual matters.

Because being right with God is a matter of no concern to them. If I were to go out today with a bullhorn and with a badge indicating I had the permission of the Montville Police Department and so to disrupt a quiet Sunday in Montville and go up and down the streets of Montville starting with the condominiums behind our parking lot and moving through the various areas of streets and lanes and with my bullhorn I was to announce that I have good news for all the inhabitants of Montville. I'm ready to reveal a way

22:17 - 23:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Take the exposition of the Ten Commandments as a divinely ordained instrument for accurate self-knowledge, to see what you really are in God's sight and flee to Christ.

He references John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, describing Christian's initial conviction of judgment and his desperate flight from the City of Destruction, crying 'Life! Life! Eternal Life!' to illustrate the urgency of a sinner convinced of their need for Christ.

what you really are in the sight of the God before whom you will stand in the day of judgment not to overstate your case to do you good but under God to see you brought to own the true state of your case that you might flee out of yourself and into Christ you remember in Pilgrim's Progress kids how does Bunyan picture Christian in the beginning of his journey when he understands from the book in his hand that judgment is to

33:52 - 34:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: my purpose is that each one of you who is not in Christ may be brought to understand and feel what you really are as an impotent sinner and a sinner in need of the spirit of Christ

Martin uses the analogy of offering five dollars to a millionaire to explain why Jesus' promise of freedom from sin was insulting to the Jews who believed they were not in bondage, showing their lack of perceived need.

shall make you free as you adhere to me and to my truth the result will be a life of liberty they answered him we are Abraham's seed never been in bondage to any man how do you say you shall be made free the assumption is Jesus that we're in bondage how can that be a blessing to us we're not in bondage that's like telling a millionaire do what I tell you and I'll give you five bucks I'm a millionaire what do I need five bucks for the Lord holds out this marvelous promise adhere to me in persevering faith and liberty will be your ultimate experience they say big deal

39:03 - 39:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Be convinced that you have no righteousness to make you acceptable before God and desperately need the righteousness of God held forth in the gospel, and that you desperately need the liberating power of the spirit of Ch…

He tells the story of the blind man who cried out to Jesus, 'Son of David, have mercy upon me,' to illustrate the desperate cry of someone who understands and feels their utter helplessness and dependence on Christ alone.

comes into play the preaching of the ten commandments is very often the instrument God uses to bring people to see to understand and to feel in their own consciousness that when the Bible says whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin that is the slave of sin that is not rhetorical overstatement that is reality that is me until as that blind man who was convinced he was blind and that he nor no other fellow human being could ever cause his optic nerves to function again so that he could see he had both understanding and felt conviction of the reality

45:42 - 46:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A man a boy a girl will never go to Christ so long as he is not convinced of misery without him of impotency in himself and therefore I say without any sense of embarrassment without any tongue in cheek my goal and I bel…

Martin quotes Bishop Leighton, who describes the law as a 'glass' or 'mirror' that shows our pollution and drives us out of ourselves to the 'fountain opened for sin and uncleanness' and to Christ, summarizing the sermon's two main goals.

but that you desperately need the liberating power of the spirit of Christ held forth in the gospel a man of God living and ministering in the mid 1600s by the name of Bishop Leighton later Archbishop Leighton not in the Roman Church but in the Anglican Church in his introduction to a series of sermons and the ten commandments very accurately stated what I've been trying to say in the following words as this discovery of what we are humbles us to ourselves so it drives us out

49:24 - 50:08 Read in full sermon

The point: When the 'ten-sided mirror' of the law reveals your stains, filth, and chains of sin, do not try to rub them off on the mirror, but go to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness and to the robe of righteousness found…

He quotes the Westminster Larger Catechism on the 'particular use of the moral law to the unregenerate man,' which is to awaken consciences and drive them to Christ, or leave them inexcusable, providing theological support for his goals.

from the larger catechism the old Westminster standards the question is what particular use is there of the moral law to the unregenerate man that is to those out of Christ the answer the moral laws of use to unregenerate men to awaken their consciences to flee from the wrath to come and to drive them to Christ or upon their continuance in the estate in way of sin to leave them inexcusable and under the curse thereof my friend out of Christ you're going to be looking in the mirror God willing

53:05 - 53:50 Read in full sermon

The point: When the 'ten-sided mirror' of the law reveals your stains, filth, and chains of sin, do not try to rub them off on the mirror, but go to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness and to the robe of righteousness found…

Martin extends the mirror analogy, describing it as a 'ten-sided mirror' with the power of a CAT scan or MRI to reveal inward stains and chains of sin, emphasizing that the mirror's function is to show the problem, not to solve it.

in coming weeks and months what I called in one of the previous messages a ten sided mirror and when that mirror reveals the measure to which you've broken the law of God and are guilty and when it reveals the state to which your heart is enslaved to sin don't be so foolish having seen from the mirror your stains and all of your filth to try to rub it off on the mirror the mirror has no power to wash away your stains and your filth when you see

53:50 - 54:34 Read in full sermon