Sovereignty of God Over Eternity

The point: Express gratitude for the ministry of the word by lifting up your heart in prayer to God, rather than clapping.

Martin shares stories of how God used Trinity Pulpit Tapes to bring about transformation in listeners' lives, illustrating the humbling and exhilarating impact of his ministry.

Before we turn to the reading and preaching of the Word of God, I want to take the liberty of taking just a few moments to say three things. First of all, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Ligonier Ministries for entrusting to me the stewardship of the public ministry of the Word of God, both in these plenary sessions and in the seminars, which have been a great delight to me in that smaller context and intimate interaction. And I do sincerely express my gratitude to all of those connected with Ligonier Ministries for entrusting me with that stewardship. And then secondly, I want to ex...

0:01 - 1:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first two activities of the sovereign judge are described: a universal convocation where all nations are gathered, followed by an infallible separation of sheep from goats…

He uses the analogy of goats learning to make sheep sounds or grow wool to look like sheep, but remaining goats by nature, to illustrate that external appearances do not change one's true spiritual state before the infallible judge.

He shall separate, he shall set. Here in vivid language, is described an infallible separation. He will not merely separate those that have the appearance of sheep from those that are goats, but because he knows the secrets of men's hearts and the Lord knows those who are truly his, with an infallible knowledge, he will mark out all of his sheep and set them upon his right hand. And all of the goats, those who may have learned by imitation to make the sounds of a sheep, and by some kind of alchemy may have even learned how to grow wool that looked like a sheep instead of goat's hair. But in th...

20:52 - 21:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And once he has made his declaration, there is no appeal system to a higher court. There is no way to get off on technicalities.

Martin uses the analogy of his own voice registering on ears or sign language on eyes to emphasize the certainty and personal reception of Christ's irrevocable declaration of 'Come, you blessed' or 'Depart, you cursed.'

There is no way to get off on technicalities. When the king seated upon his throne, in all of the splendor and glory of his kingship manifested to the entire moral universe, when he has made, the separation and then makes this declaration, Come, you blessed, depart, you cursed, the eternal destinies are forever fixed, irrevocably fixed by the declaration of the king. It's a sobering thing for me to look out upon your faces, to look at the instrumentalist to my left, and those who have been singing to my right, to have looked myself in the mirror this morning, and to realize that you, every one...

23:45 - 25:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is a solemn thing to have been created. A human being with an indestructible existence that God thinks so much of that which he made in his image, that though the image has been marred in the fall, God, if I may say i…

He contrasts the eternal destiny of humans with that of animals or stars, highlighting the solemnity of being created as a human being with an indestructible existence, emphasizing God's care even for the wicked dead.

Those words will not be spoken to the beast of the field. Those words will not be spoken to the sparkling, diamond-like, glittering stars that are above us. They'll not be spoken to the whales that ply the seas. As I have meditated in preparation for this message today, the words that have haunted me are these.

25:46 - 26:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: By a false sentimentalism or by a pseudo-Christian compassion that is nothing but carnal sentimentalism, the punishment of hell will be conscious, unending, non-terminated suffering.

Martin explains the imagery of the 'worm never dies and the fire is never quenched' by contrasting it with natural worms and fires that eventually cease, illustrating the unending, conscious nature of suffering in hell.

It is the place where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. It is the place where the fire is never quenched and the fire is never quenched. That is why when the worm has consumed the carcass on which it feeds and consumes the energy derived from it, the worm dies. It has no more food on which to feed.

39:02 - 39:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: More than all of this we should recognize the superficiality and essential cruelty of that mock charity which makes so many professed theological reformers disguise from sinners or explain away the real facts as to the a…

He quotes A.A. Hodge on the 'superficiality and essential cruelty of that mock charity' which disguises the reality of eternal punishment, illustrating the danger of theological reformers softening biblical warnings.

I can only say because he said it better than I in the words of A.A. Hodge, answering those who in his day tried to cut off the right angles and the sobering reality. And in the glory of this doctrine, he said this, More than all of this we should recognize the superficiality and essential cruelty of that mock charity which makes so many professed theological reformers disguise from sinners or explain away the real facts as to the attitude of the Word of God on this subject of eternal punishment.

40:58 - 41:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: More than all of this we should recognize the superficiality and essential cruelty of that mock charity which makes so many professed theological reformers disguise from sinners or explain away the real facts as to the a…

Martin commends Robert Peterson's book 'Hell on Trial' as the finest he has read on the subject, using it as an example of a robust defense of eternal punishment against contemporary departures like ultimate annihilation.

Even if mistakes should be made in the way of rendering the aspect of scriptural punishment, even if mistakes should be made in the way of rendering the aspect of scriptural punishment, even if mistakes should be made in the way of rendering the aspect of scriptural punishment, while it might give unnecessary pain for the present, it could not betray souls to an unexpected danger in the world to come. But there is no more deadly injury, no more wanton cruelty, which any man can perpetrate upon a fellow creature than that which the theological reformer is in danger of when, than that which the ...

41:37 - 43:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Give yourself no rest until you are certain that Christ will say to you, 'Come, you blessed one, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'

He shares a personal experience of his body and soul sometimes being out of sync (body energetic, soul dull; or soul yearning, body weak), illustrating the glory of heaven where redeemed humanity will experience perfect glorification and harmony.

down what are the questions about heaven that most press in upon your mind when you contemplate heaven and there is so much concerning the glory of that place and of that state which is revealed from us but surely much is made clear enough to excite us and make us a heavenly minded people if the root of the matter is in us it will be first of all a life in which all who enter it will experience the perfect glorification of their entire redeemed humanity the soul will not have the slightest taint of sin we will have bodies according to the apostle fashion like unto the body of his glory and one...

46:01 - 47:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Give yourself no rest until you are certain that Christ will say to you, 'Come, you blessed one, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'

Martin dismisses the common image of 'sitting half asleep and drowsy eyed on a cloud plunking a harp' as unexciting, contrasting it with the biblical vision of unwearied service and loving God with an unsinning heart and glorified body.

so that in all of the faculties of the inner person god will be loved supremely with all the heart mind soul and strength and then that soul will have a body ready to come to the service of all of its sanctified yearnings that's going to be heaven this idea of sitting half asleep and drowsy eyed on a cloud plunking a harp that doesn't excite me but to think of loving god with an unsinning heart as mcshane expressed it and then the unsinning heart having a glorified body surging with the very life of immortality to serve our god it will be a life in which all who enter it will experience unwear...

47:24 - 48:48 Read in full sermon