The Opening Command and Warning

Driving home: At the heart of the gospel of the grace of God lies the answer. The amazing fact that an infinitely holy and an inflexibly just God is prepared to accept wretchedly sinful and undeniably guilty men and women as perfectly…

Martin uses the metaphor of 'monsters' to describe legalism and antinomianism, highlighting their destructive nature as perversions of the gospel.

At the heart of the gospel of the grace of God lies the answer. The amazing fact that an infinitely holy and an inflexibly just God is prepared to accept wretchedly sinful and undeniably guilty men and women as perfectly righteous in His sight solely on the basis of the activity of Jesus Christ, who lived, died, and rose again. In order to provide such a righteousness. Now no sooner is that glorious message preached in its unfettered fullness, but that the enemy of men's souls turns loose two great perversions of that message. And the first is the perversion that I am calling the monster of le...

1:22 - 2:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: At the heart of the gospel of the grace of God lies the answer. The amazing fact that an infinitely holy and an inflexibly just God is prepared to accept wretchedly sinful and undeniably guilty men and women as perfectly…

He describes antinomianism as a 'Frankenstein monster' made of Christ's perfect righteousness combined with the devil's logic, illustrating how it distorts truth.

The Frankenstein monster of antinomianism is made of the doctrine of Christ's perfect righteousness to which there is added the devil's logic. The logic of Romans 6.1, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? If we are accepted before God on the grounds of the work of another, then our work, our work is of no consequence.

4:29 - 5:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section delves into Philippians 3:2, dissecting the essence of the warning ('be continually alert') and the objects of the warning: the Judaizers, described with harsh, vivid…

The analogy of a chairman pounding a gavel three times to gain full attention illustrates the rhetorical force and continuous pressure of Paul's threefold 'beware' command.

And the form of the verb is that of a present imperative. That is, it is a command and a command that has continued pressure upon it. O Philippians, be continually be continually be continually for as someone has said like the man in a grand assembly seeking to get the attention of that assembly and he takes his gavel and he pounds it once and part of the assembly comes to attention. Then he pounds it a second time and he gets about three quarters of the assembly and then the third time he brings the gavel down with all his might and the whole assembly and the hushed silence falls upon that as...

21:27 - 22:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section delves into Philippians 3:2, dissecting the essence of the warning ('be continually alert') and the objects of the warning: the Judaizers, described with harsh, vivid…

Judaizers are compared to 'spiritual cuckoos' who don't build their own nests but invade others, illustrating their parasitic nature in seeking to corrupt established churches.

the danger that's the essence of the warning but now look at the objects and the objects obviously just three descriptions of one basic group of people the Judaizers. Those people who had embraced the fundamentals of the Christian faith but were determined to undermine that faith by their bad mathematics putting plus signs where God put full stops by their mathematics and their grammar. There's no indication that they were presently at work at Philippi. There is nothing in the text of Scripture itself to indicate that. We know they were at Galatia and the entire epistle to the Galatians is thi...

22:54 - 24:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section delves into Philippians 3:2, dissecting the essence of the warning ('be continually alert') and the objects of the warning: the Judaizers, described with harsh, vivid…

He contrasts the modern positive connotations of 'dog' (man's best friend, guide dogs, hunting dogs) with the ancient negative connotations to explain Paul's harsh language.

Beware the dogs. Now this demonstrates perhaps perhaps more vividly than many other parts of Philippians why we must interpret the Bible in terms of the historical setting in which it was given to us. When we think of the word dog generally speaking the connotations are man's best friend. The lovely animal that stretches out by the glowing fireplace and just sort of adds an extra dimension to the coziness of the house.

24:50 - 25:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Children of God are called upon to watch as well as to pray that they enter not into temptation, enduring the wearisomeness of keeping watch.

The experience of pulling night watch in the military is used to illustrate the wearisome but disciplined nature of constant spiritual watchfulness against error.

for Paul to say rejoice in the Lord once why did he say beware thrice that says it is enough to have the positive injunctions of the Bible this negativism must go my friend this passage is three quarters negative and the Holy God when men get wiser than God they leave themselves vulnerable to all forms of spirit , sickness and evil watchfulness is a wearisome task any of you who have been in the military and have had to pull night watch know what I'm talking about there is no stimulating activity physically or mentally to keep all your faculties alert and it's a matter of the most dogged kind ...

34:13 - 35:39 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a stranger to the grace of God, understand that it makes a difference what you believe; you are saved by the truth, and only by knowing, believing, and submitting to it can you have hope of salvation.

The Pope is called the 'Pied Piper of Romanism' to illustrate his charismatic but deceptive influence in leading people astray from the true gospel.

in denunciatory terms we call the Pope Antichrist because he is Antichrist in his person and in his teaching any man who calls himself the very visible representation of Christ is Antichrist any man who supports a system that says my blessed Lord is offered up again upon Romish altars and attacks the foundational doctrine of the Christian faith is Antichrist when respected religious protestant leaders call him a lovely Christian man oh we have a few differences they do no service to God's people he's the Pied Piper of Romanism and with his contagious masculinity and with his very attractive ou...

47:20 - 48:48 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a stranger to the grace of God, understand that it makes a difference what you believe; you are saved by the truth, and only by knowing, believing, and submitting to it can you have hope of salvation.

The anecdote of Martin Luther wishing his people 'the blessing of God and the curse of the Pope' illustrates the necessity of both embracing the pure gospel and denouncing error.

that sinners have no grounds of acceptance before a holy God but in the person and work of Jesus Christ and is that benefit of his person and work received by faith alone and does it issue then in the life of holiness and obedience as the fruit of faith that's the gospel and anything else is error no matter how fair its speech may be whatever else we may or may not say of Martin Luther he captured the spirit of the apostle Paul one writer says that when the end was drawing near and Luther knew that he was going over that bridge that only goes one way and he was pronouncing a blessing upon his ...

50:18 - 51:46 Read in full sermon