Bad News / Good News from God

Driving home: I personally do not believe there is any text in all of the Old Testament, in the history of the Holy Scripture, Old Testament in which the very heart, the very essence of the gospel is more clearly and comprehensively e…

Gospel texts are likened to divinely inspired signposts pointing the way to life and salvation, borrowing Bunyan's term for Heaven.

Now, as it was announced on Wednesday evening at our prayer meeting, we will continue tonight our brief series of studies in the Word of God under the title of Simple Signpost to the Celestial City. And for the benefit of any who have not been with us in the previous parts of this series, what I am aiming for is very simple and straightforward in this series of studies. I'm attempting to take some of those very simple, clear gospel texts which embody, in a nutshell, the heart and soul of the biblical message, concerning life and salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. And likening those texts to d...

0:00 - 1:19 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I personally do not believe there is any text in all of the Old Testament, in the history of the Holy Scripture, Old Testament in which the very heart, the very essence of the gospel is more clearly and comprehensively e…

Genesis 3:15 is described as the 'seedbed' of gospel promises, while Isaiah 53:6 is the 'fullest-blooming gospel flower' in the Old Testament, emphasizing its comprehensive expression of the gospel.

And thus far, we've considered four such texts, each of them from the New Testament. However, tonight we're going to consider a simple signpost to the Celestial City taken from the Old Testament. And if you have any familiarity with the Old Testament and its central gospel texts, perhaps some of you have already thought of Genesis 3 and verse 15, that first gospel promise in which God Himself, in the midst of pronouncing a curse upon man for his sin, and upon the devil himself for his part in man's sin, coming in the form of the serpent, God gives that word which is really the seedbed out of w...

2:19 - 3:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the 'bad news' from the first part of Isaiah 53:6, presenting a vivid picture of humanity as 'sheep gone astray' from their rightful Shepherd, exposed to…

The prophet's vivid picture of the entire human race as a vast flock of sheep, every single one gone astray, emphasizes their departure from God and exposure to danger.

Here he is picturing the entire human race. He is picturing all fellow Israelites. He is picturing human beings. He is picturing humanity like a vast flock of sheep in which every single one of those sheep has gone astray as part of that vast stray flock.

8:47 - 9:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Building on the vivid picture, Martin presents the 'blunt statement' that 'we have turned every one to his own way,' defining this as self-determination and self-will. He argues…

God's judgment on the earth with a flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are given as examples of God's serious response to humanity's sin and turning to their own way.

In fact, God takes man strange, man's determination to do His own thing so seriously that He blotted out with a flood the entire earth. This is our responsibility, our right to love, Except one family. He said, it grieves me that I ever made man. I'll blot them all out. And he sent a whole generation into hell amidst the floodwaters of that ancient judgment.

19:31 - 20:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin applies the bad news directly, stating that until it becomes an 'absorbing concern,' salvation will not be sought. He underscores the sobering reality of hell as the just…

Martin shares his personal reflection on his own mortality and the certainty of a 'last trip' up the stairs to preach, emphasizing the urgency of faithfully delivering the sermon's central message.

And as I walked up these steps tonight. I said oh God. Someday. I'll make my last.

26:10 - 26:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The resurrection is among other things God's receipt that payment has been made in full for all who will come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is pictured as a hawker in the marketplace, passionately inviting everyone who thirsts to partake of the blessings of salvation 'without money and without price,' highlighting the freeness of the gospel.

And to validate that the Father was fully satisfied with what he did when he bore the sins of his people, he raised him from the dead the third day. And the resurrection is among other things God's receipt that payment has been made in full for all who will come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in the light of that reality, the good news of God's gracious provision for sin of which the author is God, the focus is the substitutionary sin bearing of the servant of Jehovah, we come thirdly under the good news to answer the question, what does God require of us in the light of that good news...

46:01 - 47:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The resurrection is among other things God's receipt that payment has been made in full for all who will come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The human soul is described as having a 'God-shaped hole' that cannot be filled by worldly pleasures or self-gratification, emphasizing the futility of seeking satisfaction apart from God.

forgiveness and pardon, reconciliation to himself, all under the picture of one who's gone out into the marketplace to be a hawker of goods. Oh, everyone that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that hath no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk. Without money and without price, wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not? Do you really think you can fill that God-shaped hole with feelings that come from the end of your fingers, the end of your lips, at the ends of your sexual organs? Do you think you can fill the aching hole,...

47:29 - 48:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Come with your spiritual blindness and say, 'Lord Jesus, give me sight.'

A quote from John 'Rabbi' Duncan – 'There is nothing but Christ between us and hell and thank God we need nothing else' – is used to define the essence of faith as placing Christ alone as the sole mediator.

In the imagery of this passage you take the wine and the milk of God's free forgiveness and pardon in the Lord Jesus but you can't drink it in to a stomach that is still determined to go on feeding upon the filth and the vile rancid soul destructive stuff of sin. No, you must repent. Forsake your way right down to the patterns of your thoughts for thoughts are the mother of deeds. Let the wicked forsake his way and the thoughts behind them and let him return unto our God for he will abundantly pardon. And what is faith? As I have been wrestling this week with this question Lord how can I make ...

58:04 - 59:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Come with your spiritual blindness and say, 'Lord Jesus, give me sight.'

The act of skydiving is used to illustrate faith: just as a skydiver relies on a main and backup chute, faith relies on Christ alone, emphasizing that there is 'no backup chute' for salvation.

I'll have one thing between me and hell Christ, Christ alone Christ himself. Then as my mind began to turn over the issue I said now what is an illustration of this? And for some reason I thought of those who do skydiving when they jump out of the plane at 7,000 sometimes even higher when they're going to do various formations there's only one thing that stands between them or many times two things that stand between them and bouncing on the hard earth and their death and that's their main chute and their backup chute. And at a given point when they check their altimeter and know that I must p...

60:05 - 61:08 Read in full sermon