Uniqueness of Christs Sacrifice

The point: Examine your faith in terms of the definition of saving faith: who is the person you have believed in, and what do you know of Him and His work?

Martin compares hearing about eternal life and death so often that one's ears become deaf to the issues, like the drone of an airplane, to illustrate spiritual apathy.

The issues of heaven and of hell. And it's a frightful thing to hear these things so often that our ears become deaf to the issues at stake. I know of churches where you could go for six years or sixty years and never once be even soberly warned or asked to consider whether or not you're going to spend eternity in the presence of the eternal God and the holy angels and the redeemed. Or spend it in the presence of the devil and demons and the host of the damned.

1:02 - 1:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And our Lord's sacrifice in that sense is truly unique. It's one of a kind.

He asks listeners to picture the continuous, daily repetition of animal sacrifices for a Jew, hearing the bleeding lamb, to convey the constant reminder of sin not yet put away, contrasting it with modern church attendance.

Hebrews 10 verses 1 to 3 For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of these things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers once purged should have had no more. For conscience of sins but in those sacrifices there's a remembrance again made of sins every year. Can you try to picture what it was like to a Jew? It's so hard for us to think in these terms because we can just slip into church and slip out and put a nickel on ...

11:18 - 12:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God before the foundation of the world had a lamb slain a lamb slain he had purposes which would focus upon the sacrifice of his son

Martin uses the analogy of a shepherd guiding sheep away from unseen dangers to ask for trust from his congregation regarding the importance of the next point, even if they don't immediately grasp its significance.

you'll have to trust me that you may not see that this is too much of an issue but as a shepherd may know certain dangers down the road that the sheep aren't aware of and even though they don't understand why he's steering them away from that path they have to trust him I trust that at least if four and a half years have done anything they've engendered a little bit of mutual confidence and trust there are movements abroad in our day again even filtering into our evangelical circles which make this next point very vital when was Jesus Christ offered up at what place in time and space was the s...

23:05 - 24:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God before the foundation of the world had a lamb slain a lamb slain he had purposes which would focus upon the sacrifice of his son

He explains God's perspective of an 'eternal now' by contrasting it with human perception of time (yesterday, now, tomorrow), to help understand Christ as the Lamb slain 'from the foundation of the world'.

shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of the life book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world he's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world now the little phrase foundation of the world is simply a figure of speech it's the best thing I could use the technical term and say it's a hebraism to indicate before time began back before man came on the scene back before the world as it now is as we know it was here he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 1 Peter 1 20 speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ who verily was foreordained before...

24:33 - 26:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God before the foundation of the world had a lamb slain a lamb slain he had purposes which would focus upon the sacrifice of his son

Martin uses the caricature of God being caught by surprise by sin and having to devise a 'helter skelter afterthought' plan to highlight the blasphemy of such a view and emphasize God's eternal, sovereign plan.

shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of the life book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world he's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world now the little phrase foundation of the world is simply a figure of speech it's the best thing I could use the technical term and say it's a hebraism to indicate before time began back before man came on the scene back before the world as it now is as we know it was here he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 1 Peter 1 20 speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ who verily was foreordained before...

24:33 - 26:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God before the foundation of the world had a lamb slain a lamb slain he had purposes which would focus upon the sacrifice of his son

He contrasts the natural provision for foxes and birds (holes, nests) with Christ's lack of a permanent home ('the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his head') to illustrate Christ's privation and suffering.

with men he was baptized and John said Lord you shouldn't be baptized I'm the one who needs to be baptized of you this is a baptism of repentance you have nothing to repent of he said no but thus it becomes to fulfill all righteousness he's going to identify himself with sinful men and so he does so even in this external ordinance in his privation foxes have holes I made them and I saw to it that I put in them what the naturalist calls instinct and they know how to dig a little hole and I've made enough earth so there's some holes for foxes and they can go and put a sign out and say that's lit...

30:27 - 31:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: on those three hours in time hang all the blessings and the destiny of all the redeemed of all ages for all eternity

Martin critiques common artistic depictions of Christ in Gethsemane as serene, contrasting them with the biblical account of Him being 'sore amazed' and falling on His face, to emphasize the intensity of His suffering.

unto them my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death tarry ye here and watch and he went forward a little and he fell on the ground now see we see that picture may God help us to be delivered from these artists who butcher Christian truth and you see the picture of the man with a nice countenance and a saintly flush on his cheeks and looking up undisturbed to heaven in the light of the dim moonlight filtering through the olive trees that's not the picture of the scripture here's a man exceedingly amazed so shocked and horrified and over and falls to his face let some artists draw that if y...

33:25 - 34:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: on those three hours in time hang all the blessings and the destiny of all the redeemed of all ages for all eternity

He shares his pastoral experience of becoming accustomed to women's tears but never to a strong man sobbing, to underscore the profound agony and intensity of Christ's 'strong cryings and tears' in Gethsemane.

transported back through time to where we could just sit up in a tree in that garden that night I don't think we could take it to come upon a grown man who is so absolutely overpowered with something that he encounters that he literally staggers like a drunken man falls upon the ground and it says strong cryings and tears and tears as a pastor I've learned to perhaps get a little bit accustomed to women crying being the more sensitive emotionally of the sexes I've just sort of gotten a hard heart to a woman's tears I've had to learn to it because the minute you begin to identify with someone's...

34:55 - 36:16 Read in full sermon