Practical Fruits

Driving home: If God's grace merely secured a salvation which the people of God might enjoy for a day, for a week, for a year, for a decade, or even for ten decades, but ultimately forfeit it, how could it be a salvation which secures…

Jesus' illustration of a man who starts building a tower but cannot finish it is used to show that if God's grace did not secure ultimate salvation, He would be like that mocked builder, unable to complete what He began.

God would be like the man in Luke 14 who is mocked because he could not finish what he began. You remember Jesus in urging sober consideration of the cost of discipleship used in illustration. He said, a man who's going to build a tower sits down first and considers whether he has enough to complete the project before he begins it or else people coming by and seeing his half-finished product and all of us perhaps can remember places in our old hometown where someone actually did that, began to build a house and years later the shell sat there deteriorating and any visitor comes and said, what ...

9:30 - 10:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If God's grace merely secured a salvation which the people of God might enjoy for a day, for a week, for a year, for a decade, or even for ten decades, but ultimately forfeit it, how could it be a salvation which secures…

The metaphor of 'wreckages of people' strewn across time illustrates the outcome if God's grace merely provided temporary salvation without securing perseverance, implying God would be scorned.

Well, you see, if God's grace merely provided a salvation which brought people into the enjoyment of its blessings for a time, but did not secure their perseverance and preservation, God Himself would be the monumental object of mockery and scorn because there would be strewn across the span of time the wreckages, of people who began but who did not persevere and were not preserved until the end. Now that there are those who profess to be saved who do not persevere and are not preserved,

10:15 - 10:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Constantly offer praise to God for the glory of His grace manifested in a salvation that secures perseverance and preservation.

John Newton's hymn 'Amazing Grace' is quoted ('tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home') to exemplify the confidence in God's preserving grace despite unknown future trials.

that procures for all of the people of God an unremovable seal of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit Himself? This is omnipotent grace, indefectible grace, overcoming, conquering grace. And that's exactly what Newton had in mind when he said, through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come, tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. Though he could not be a prophet and predict what the combination would be

14:58 - 15:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Humility is the grace that is the attendant of the realism of seeing yourself for what you are in the presence of God.

The examples of breathing and a beating heart are used to illustrate human dependence on God's sovereign decree for every moment of existence, fostering humility.

You couldn't breathe your next breath if God didn't decree that you should. Oh, you say, come off it. That's the truth. That heart that beats, plump, plump, plump, plump.

31:14 - 31:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Humility is the grace that is the attendant of the realism of seeing yourself for what you are in the presence of God.

The example of varying ages for clogged arteries (35 vs. 80) is used to illustrate God's sovereign ordering of genetic structure and life, reinforcing human dependence.

And even if they could explain it in terms of this occlusion or that or the other, who sovereignly ordered your genetic structure so that all of your pipes would get clogged up at age 35 when someone else who eats the same way you do and exercises as much doesn't get clogged up until he's 80? That all just chants, no, my friend, you're in the hands of a sovereign God. He holds the keys of life and death. In him we live and move and have our being.

31:56 - 32:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The fourth fruit for believers is nurturing the disposition of holy humility. Martin defines humility as the realism of seeing oneself as a dependent creature and a sinful being…

The example of looking down on 'dirty apostates' is used to show how a salvation based on human effort can lead to pride, contrasting it with humility born of God's preserving grace.

I could have fallen, and really fallen totally out of the faith, but I'm still in the faith. Why? Because I've kept myself in the way. Look at those dirty apostates who didn't do what I did.

33:54 - 34:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate prayerfulness, dependence, and thankfulness as expressions of holy humility, acknowledging that all is of grace.

Martin shares a personal anecdote of looking back over 30 years and remembering fellow worshipers who fervently sought God but later blasphemed and fell into iniquity, using this to highlight that the ultimate difference in perseverance is God's preserving grace, fostering humility.

There's one reason. The Triune God is committed to preserve me. And His preserving work was manifested in my persevering in spite of the fact that I've got enough fuel in me to lead me out of the faith a hundred times any given day of my life. And so I bow before the God of grace and say, Oh God, I am one.

34:44 - 35:08 Read in full sermon