Saving Religion: What it is / Do You Have It?

Driving home: There is no more profound description of the basic purpose of life in every person who is not joined to Christ than these three little words, live unto themselves.

Compares a dishonest businessman who lives for self-pleasure with a kind, gentle, sweet person. Martin argues that if neither is joined to Christ, their underlying purpose is the same: living unto themselves, even if the external manifestations differ.

What pleases you becomes the bar of judgment between what you do and what you won't do. You live unto yourself. Self is the goal of your existence. Now, in some people, that manifests itself in a life that even worldlings call a wicked life.

35:18 - 35:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Is consciously pleasing Christ the dominant purpose and focus of your life, shaping all your activities?

Contrasts a drunken cowboy shooting aimlessly with Paul's focused aim to please Christ. This illustrates that living unto Christ is a conscious, concentrated activity, not a random one.

What are you aiming at? I don't mean what are you doing like the drunken cowboy going through town at three in the morning with his six guns blazing, not aiming at anything, just shooting, having a great time.

39:48 - 39:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that the old purpose dictates an old pathway, characterized by walking according to the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and the lusts of…

Compares choosing a road for a vacation to New England with choosing a life pathway. The purpose (vacation) determines the path, just as the purpose of living unto Christ determines one's new pathway.

If your purpose is to go up into New England as some of our people did this past week on vacation, then the path, the road you choose will be governed by your purpose. And so if your purpose is to live unto Him, the path you choose will be governed by that purpose. Now what is the purpose that we all have by nature? What is the old pathway, I'm sorry, the old pathway that we walk?

44:50 - 45:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you have the fruit of saving religion? Has the old pathway of bodily appetites, mental appetites, the world, and the devil passed, replaced by a path framed by God's Word and walked in the Spirit's power?

Uses Paul's statement about the world being crucified to him to illustrate that the world and its standards have no more power over a believer than a crucified man on a cross.

I refuse to think any thought that means I must contradict divine revelation just as much as I refuse to walk in paths that mean I must violate divine precepts. No longer is my pathway determined by the spirit of this world which says, be this kind of a man, be that kind of a woman, let this be your goal. No, no, Paul says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. He said the world doesn't dictate my pathway.

48:40 - 49:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There are only two kinds of religion in the world the religion of free will in which what you do makes the difference and in which what you do what you have done becomes the point of glory. The other religion is the reli…

Describes how many 'evangelical' testimonies are filled with the word 'I' ('I decided,' 'I made a decision'), demonstrating a focus on human action rather than God's sovereign grace, which is characteristic of the 'religion of free will.'

If you check into the heathen religions all the way to some of the refined so-called expressions of Christianity that fall short of the perspective that we've looked at tonight at the core you will find this error. The difference between those who have true religion and false religion according to them is what you have done and therefore the testimony focuses upon what I have done and what I have accomplished. If you want to know how tragically this has affected much of so-called evangelical Christianity just read the so-called testimonies of people who have been converted under this type

53:50 - 54:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The ultimate root of saving religion is God's sovereign activity. Martin contrasts the 'religion of free will' (what man does) with the 'religion of free grace' (what God has…

Compares God's act of saying 'light shall shine out of darkness' at creation to His shining light into a sin-darkened heart during conversion. This illustrates that God is the active agent in spiritual illumination.

Seeing it is God that said light shall shine seeing it is God who said light shall shine out of darkness who shines in our hearts to give the light to the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Why are you Christian Paul? He says because God turned the light on.

56:14 - 56:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not use theological principles like a 'baseball bat' to 'clobber' others who may not phrase their testimony accurately.

Warns young, immature believers against using theological principles like a 'baseball bat' to 'clobber the head of everyone you meet who maybe doesn't phrase his testimony accurately,' emphasizing the need for caution and grace in applying truth.

Saving religion is marked by this principle and though men may not be accurate in what they say with their lips and we must be careful here some of you who are young and immature will take a principle like this and go on out and use it like a baseball bat and clobber the head of everyone you meet who maybe doesn't phrase his testimony accurately. Now God help you if you do that. Don't you blame that on me if you go out and leave bloody heads and say well I learned that up at the Trinity Baptist Church. You didn't learn to go around bloodying up heads with theological baseball bats.

57:17 - 57:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Have you been taught in your heart that if God had not acted, you would never have been saved, due to your own corruption and love of sin?

Asks listeners to look in the mirror and consider if their life can only be explained by God's sovereign work, or if it can be explained by genes, culture, or self-help resolutions. This prompts self-examination regarding the root of their professed religion.

When you look in the mirror like Paul did and ask yourself the question as he did and says how can I explain you man? He says there's only one way to explain me God did something.

59:49 - 60:02 Read in full sermon