Longing for His Return, Part 3

The point: Unashamedly confess that the Christian faith promises 'pie in the sky, by and by,' embracing the truth that the best is yet to come.

This phrase, often used derisively against Christians, is embraced by Martin as a biblical truth, signifying that the best of God's blessings are yet to come, contrasting with the world's desire for immediate gratification.

Pie in the sky, by and by.

4:48 - 4:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So in the redemption that God has predestined, he has set his heart not only on this marvelous renovation of man, the rebel, but of the very creation that has been cursed for man's sake.

The groaning and travailing of creation in Romans 8 is compared to a woman experiencing birth contractions, indicating that something new and glorious (restored creation) is about to be birthed, not death.

And he says he did this in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. When God imparts all the glory of the salvation He purposed for His people, the whole creation is going to be liberated from its bondage, the curse placed upon it because of man's sin. When man's sin is thoroughly dealt with, then the earth that has been cursed for man's sake will also know God's redemptive, liberating power. And he says, here's one of the proofs of it, verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and trav...

28:47 - 30:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Long for Christ's appearing and the completion of the Spirit's work in you, desiring perfect holiness and a new body.

The 'firstfruits of the Spirit' are likened to a smidgen of an entire harvest, illustrating that believers have only received an initial installment of God's grace, with a full field of redemptive blessing yet to come at Christ's return.

That is, we have the first installments of the full harvest of God's grace imparted and effectually working in us by the spirit. Or we have the first fruits of which the spirit is the beginning and there will be additional manifestations of his grace. However we take it, the best is yet to come. When an Israelite in obedience to God was reaping the first fruits to bring as an offering to God, he was taking but a smidgen of the entire harvest.

33:22 - 33:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The seminary student looked shocked and said, well, what is the message then? He said, Jesus is going to win.

The book of Revelation is contrasted with a complex puzzle, arguing that its message is not meant to be a difficult, piece-by-piece assembly, but rather understood through its sweeping visions and central theme.

I don't say this disparagingly, grade school education and ability to read can read that book and greatly profit in thinking through the message of the book of the revelation with Dr. Poitras as a guide. Because he gets to the heart of the issue that God never gave the book of the revelation to be like one of these 2,500 piece puzzles and it's all a garden of flowers. I see people working on those things and I say, you're either crazy to want to put the pieces together or you'd be crazy when you're done.

62:18 - 62:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The seminary student looked shocked and said, well, what is the message then? He said, Jesus is going to win.

A story of an uneducated janitor who, when asked about the message of Revelation, simply replied, 'Jesus is gonna win,' highlighting the core, accessible truth of the book despite its complexities.

Jake saw a puzzle and we got to fit it all together. No, the message is in the sweeping visions that pass before the eyes of the seer, John. John, the apostle. And in the introduction to that book, when Dr. Poitras is trying to undermine this whole idea that you've got to be some kind of either a theological or an imaginative genius to appreciate the book of the revelation, that a group of seminary students were playing basketball at a gymnasium somewhere. And one of them happened to notice the janitor, the uneducated janitor over in the court reading his Bible. So one of them went over and sa...

63:10 - 63:46 Read in full sermon