Change of Mind Toward God

The point: If we have repented, all of our praise is directed to the God of free grace. If we long to see others repent, all of our hopes are pinned upon the operations of free grace.

Repentance is illustrated as a tree with soil (God's free grace), roots (conviction of sin, sight of Christ crucified), a main trunk (change of mind), and four main branches (change of mind respecting God, sin, self, and righteousness).

a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. That's the definition formally stated. The illustration or description of true repentance is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of We're trying to keep before us is that of a tree. There's soil, roots, a main trunk, ...

3:09 - 3:48 Read in full sermon

The point: If we have repented, all of our praise is directed to the God of free grace. If we long to see others repent, all of our hopes are pinned upon the operations of free grace.

Martin states that 'God makes us mourn before he makes us laugh,' comparing the pangs of new birth to a necessary sorrow before the joy of salvation, contrasting it with those who 'came smiling and tripping his way doing an Irish jig into the kingdom of heaven.'

And there's never any repentance until God has made you to feel and own something of the weight of your sin. How much? I cannot say. But until you have felt the smart and the sting of being a fallen, depraved son of Adam, a rebel against the God of heaven, until you've known what it is to feel what one of the old writers called the pangs of a new birth, you've never come to repentance. No one ever came smiling and tripping his way doing an Irish jig into the kingdom of

5:22 - 5:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin reviews the definition of repentance from the Shorter Catechism and uses the analogy of a tree. He explains that the 'soil' of repentance is God's free grace, and its…

Someone is quoted as saying, 'a Christian is a man who's bowed twice,' first before God as Creator, humbled by sin, and second before the cross, acknowledging God's mercy.

Therefore, all true repentance is in some way connected with the preaching of the law and the preaching of the gospel. Someone has said a Christian is a man who's bowed twice. He's bowed before God as His creator, humbled in the dust that He should have defied Him and broken His laws. He's bowed before the cross of Calvary, acknowledging with awe and with wonder that though He broke the holy laws of God, God has been gracious and merciful in His life.

8:04 - 8:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details how humanity naturally thinks wrongly about God (unworthy of homage, making Him like ourselves), feels wrongly toward Him (enmity, indifference, suspicion), and…

An example of wrong thinking about God is when people assume God forgets their sins or doesn't mean what He says because immediate judgment doesn't follow their transgressions (e.g., taking His name in vain, defiling the Sabbath).

You forget things so you think I forget. So you consented with a thief and you say, Oh well. No thunderbolts came out of heaven and struck me dead. I took God's name in vain and He didn't cause my tongue to rot in my mouth.

19:35 - 19:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details how humanity naturally thinks wrongly about God (unworthy of homage, making Him like ourselves), feels wrongly toward Him (enmity, indifference, suspicion), and…

Martin compares open hostility to God's laws with utter indifference, suggesting that practical atheism (acting as though God isn't there) might be worse than outright defiance, as it shows a deeper disregard.

It may do it openly or it may do it in the more subtle form of being utterly indifferent to Him. I don't know which is worse. At least when a man says, I hate the laws of this country and I'm going to defy them, he's acknowledging that the law is there and the country has some standards. But the man who just acts as though they aren't there and just goes on and does as he pleases, I think he's the worst criminal.

20:26 - 20:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is none that understandeth, now here's the sad verse, none that seeketh after God.

The prodigal son's initial departure from his father's house is used to illustrate humanity's natural wrong thoughts and feelings toward God, viewing His rules as restraints and wanting to escape His presence.

We're prodigals. And wasn't that the problem with the prodigal? He thought wrong thoughts about his dad. He thought wrong thoughts about him.

21:49 - 21:57 Read in full sermon

The point: You young teenage girl... No, no. You see, it loses that young teenage girl to say, God, You made me. You made me this way. Now I want to accept my place as Your creature. And You didn't make me a boy, You made me a girl…

Martin challenges the worldly definition of a 'true woman' (e.g., 'Take out your slims and suck it in your miniskirt. You've come a long way.'), contrasting it with finding true womanhood in accepting God's will as Creator.

In listening to what the world says, this is a real woman. You've really made it, Jane. Take out your slims and suck it in your miniskirt. You've come a long way.

32:20 - 32:28 Read in full sermon

The point: You fellows, you'll say the same thing. You don't look out there to the fellows that can sneak their weeds on the side and brag about it to you and can get the pornographic literature off the local drugstore shelf and sn…

The analogy of a fish flopping on a hayfield and then being placed into a fishbowl or pond is used to illustrate that accepting one's place as God's creature is not bondage but liberation, finding the environment for which one was truly made.

You see, for the first time, you accept your place as a creature. And that's the most liberating thing that ever can happen to a man. Is it bondage for a poor little fish that all its life has been flopping around, if it has any left, has been flopping around on a hayfield somewhere? Is it bondage for him to be plopped into a fishbowl or into a fishpond?

33:39 - 33:44 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using the prodigal son as an illustration, Martin shows how the son's repentance involved a radical change of mind about his father – from viewing his father's rules as harsh to…

The prodigal son's return to his father is used as an extended illustration of repentance, showing his radical change of mind about his father's character, his will, and his presence, desiring to be a servant rather than an independent son.

household? Because of those things he thought about his father. In his father's rule and the father's ordering of the household, he didn't feel like he fit. He was a misfit.

43:25 - 43:36 Read in full sermon