Two Damning Delusions

Driving home: the two great and damning mistakes of men with reference to their soul's salvation are these. One, that they may enter heaven at last, though they are strangers to the new birth.

Martin opens by describing how a single sentence from John Owen had lodged in his mind so powerfully that he could no more refrain from preaching on it than fly to the moon — used to explain the unusual extemporaneous character of this sermon.

A sentence from something that I read from John Owen many moons ago has fastened itself upon my mind, and I could no more preach on this than fly to the moon, and I'm just going to take my clue from that sentence and turn to the Word of God. I trust I am constrained by the Spirit of God to do so.

0:03 - 0:24 Read in full sermon

The point: If you entertain any hope of seeing or entering the kingdom of God on a basis other than the new birth, you are hoping against the words of Jesus Himself — examine what foundation your hope actually rests on.

Martin holds up Nicodemus as the ideal religious insider — circumcised the eighth day, within the covenant nation, the teacher in Israel, morally blameless before the external law — precisely to show that even such a man stands in need of the new birth.

Listen to the words of Jesus. Speaking to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John, he says to this perfect son of the covenant, I always like to think of him as such, for he was, he was within the covenant nation. He had the covenant sign, rain in his flesh. He was circumcised the eighth day, as every good son of the covenant was.

2:23 - 2:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself honestly: has God ever taken the lid off your heart and shown you what your fleshy nature is actually like? That revelation — breaking, crushing, and humbling the soul — is a Spirit-wrought work that prepare…

Martin uses wry humor: Nicodemus would have won a 'Christian citizen of 1973' award in any respectable community, and yet Christ told him he needed to be born again — illustrating that external moral excellence cannot substitute for regeneration.

He would have been elected Christian citizen of 1973 in Podunk, Ohio or some other place.

10:39 - 10:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself honestly: has God ever taken the lid off your heart and shown you what your fleshy nature is actually like? That revelation — breaking, crushing, and humbling the soul — is a Spirit-wrought work that prepare…

Martin recalls hearing Tozer on tape say: 'I've seen a number of ugly sights in my life, but the worst sight I've ever seen is my own heart.' Used to make the enmity of the flesh personally and viscerally concrete rather than merely doctrinal.

You shall never forget the words of A.W. Tozer, that dear saint of God who's gone to glory.

11:16 - 11:20 Read in full sermon

The point: When God shows you the enmity and corruption of your own heart, you do not receive that by bare faith — He brings it home by spiritual sight and it breaks you. If you have never been so broken and humbled, press the ques…

Martin constructs an extended analogy: planting lettuce seeds and expecting a crop of tomatoes — even a three-year-old would know that is absurd. Flesh can only produce after its own kind, just as Paul lists the works of the flesh in Galatians 5.

Well, suppose I took all the children out next week and said I'm going to plant my garden. And I took some lettuce seeds.

13:54 - 14:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin develops three defining marks of unregenerate flesh: (1) enmity against God, pressing the congregation to ask whether God has ever shown them their own heart's hostility…

Martin points to what was happening in that very service: some listeners nearly lost their composure with tears of joy during the Isaac Watts hymn on effectual calling, while others were as unmoved as if they had been singing 'Jack and the Beanstalk.' Same words, same room, same air — the difference is the opened eye of the new birth.

Let me illustrate it. It's been going on right in this building tonight. I have no doubt but that some of you have actually had to restrain tears of joy or shouts of halalness. I have no doubt but that some of you have actually had to restrain tears of joy or shouts of halalness.

18:47 - 18:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin develops three defining marks of unregenerate flesh: (1) enmity against God, pressing the congregation to ask whether God has ever shown them their own heart's hostility…

Martin quotes two stanzas of the Isaac Watts hymn: 'Why was I made to hear thy voice, and enter while there's room... T'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew me in, else we had still refused to come and perished in our sin' — as the occasion for his illustration of the seeing and sightless hearer.

When you were singing of such great truths as God's effectual call in that great hymn of Isaac Watts, why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room, while others make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? T'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew me in, else we had still refused to come and perished in our sin, and some of us were probably on the very brink of losing our composure. While others of you, we could have been singing about Jack and the Beanstalk for all you were concerned. Why?

18:58 - 19:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains what Jesus meant by 'born of water and Spirit' by connecting John 3:5 to Ezekiel 36:25-27, arguing Christ had the new covenant promise in mind — a spiritual…

Martin points to Christ's rebuke of Nicodemus for not recognizing the Ezekiel 36 new covenant promise — a man of his Old Testament learning should have known what 'born of water and Spirit' meant, yet it was hidden to him.

And He was talking about a spiritual experience that He says, Nicodemus, ought to be aware of. He said, Art thou the teacher in Israel? And knowest not these things? And I, along with many other commentators, believe that our Lord had precisely Ezekiel 36 in His mind when He spoke to Nicodemus.

20:58 - 21:16 Read in full sermon

The point: It is not essential that you know the precise moment you were born of the Spirit. What is essential is that you have been born of the Spirit, and that its present effects are evident in your life now.

Martin uses Christ's own illustration from John 3:8 — you hear the wind but cannot tell where it comes from or goes — to show that the new birth is known by its present effects, not by our ability to pinpoint the exact moment it occurred.

He says, you can hear the wind. You can't tell where it comes from, where it goes. But you hear it. You know it by its effect.

23:42 - 23:51 Read in full sermon

The point: It is not essential that you know the precise moment you were born of the Spirit. What is essential is that you have been born of the Spirit, and that its present effects are evident in your life now.

Martin shares personally that he made perhaps a half-dozen decisions and professions while growing up in a Christian home and cannot point to the precise time he passed from death to life — using his own experience to normalize that inability while insisting the effects of true regeneration are unmistakable.

Though we know that the point as far as God's dealings we pass from death to life, surely, the ways of the spirit, are mysterious. And some of us reared in Christian homes in which our consciences were constantly sensitive to the truth of God's word, in which we made, perhaps as I did, a half a dozen false starts. And we made decisions and professions, and some of us cannot point to the precise time that we pass from death unto life. But one thing we know, whereas once we writhed in the filth, we now pant after holiness.

24:28 - 25:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds 2 Corinthians 5:17, dramatizing Paul's pregnant pause before writing 'new creation' and noting the absent verb in the Greek — the force being that if any man is in…

Martin dramatizes Paul dictating 2 Corinthians 5:17 — pausing after 'if any man be in Christ,' looking at the thought from every angle, searching for the right analogy, then picking up the pen to write 'new creation' with a dash and exclamation point — illustrating the sheer, staggering magnitude of what union with Christ effects.

And he puts his pen down or he's silent if he's dictating. And he meditates. He allows the thought to run through his mind frontward, backwards. He looks at it from this side and that side.

27:40 - 27:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not ground your assurance on a memorable past decision, emotional experience, or spiritual feeling. Ask instead: what is there about my life right now, this past week, that has no explanation apart from the new birth …

Martin describes the person who grounds their assurance in a past experience of chills, glorious feelings, and an emotional decision — and tells them they can blot that day from their memory for all he cares, because the only question that matters is what their life looks like right now.

And you go further and say, yes, I have experienced that. If so, then you ought not to be afraid of this next question. What is there about you right now this night, June 3rd, 1973, that has no explanation but that you're a new creation? Now, I'm not asking what was there about you that time when you made a decision.

29:40 - 30:02 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God nowhere says if you can remember something that happened in the past, you're all right. God says no if you can discern evidence of something that's happening now.

Martin expresses one of his deepest frustrations: hearing 1 John 5:13 quoted to grant assurance based on a past decision, while ignoring the things John actually wrote throughout the epistle — the behavioral tests — that were meant to produce that knowing.

These things have I written unto you that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Well, what things did he write that they might know? And at this point, I must give vent to one of my deepest frustrations. Whenever I hear this verse quoted in the context of saying, look, now you've made your decision and God says you ought to know.

31:42 - 32:05 Read in full sermon

The point: True assurance requires universal obedience — not perfect, but a heart committed to keeping all of God's commandments, including those that are costly and cross your strongest desires. Selective, convenient obedience is …

Martin sardonically reads a false version of 1 John 2:3 — 'hereby do we know that we know Him if we remember our glorious conversion experience' or 'if we can quote three verses on assurance and know that no matter how much we foul up we're still safe because we made a decision' — contrasting it with what the text actually says.

That's the Bible according to 20th century perversions of the truth of God. Hereby do we know that we know him if we can quote 3 verses on assurance of salvation. Well instructed in the doctrine of eternal security. And know that no matter how much we foul up we're still safe because we've made a decision.

35:43 - 36:11 Read in full sermon

The point: True assurance requires universal obedience — not perfect, but a heart committed to keeping all of God's commandments, including those that are costly and cross your strongest desires. Selective, convenient obedience is …

Martin illustrates the hypocrite's selective obedience: 'forsake not the assembling of yourselves together' is easy to keep when parents provide a ride and there is no social cost — but asks about the person who risks being disowned or divorced for obedience. Costly obedience has genuine moral content; convenient obedience does not.

because if the truth's in me it's constantly exposing my remaining sin and I must pray as long as I'm as long as I pray every day thy kingdom come thy will be done I must also pray forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors not obeying imperfectly not obeying in an equal zeal at any point in our lives but the drift of our lives is what obedience to his word now notice what it says hereby do we know that we know him if we keep some of his commandments no no if we keep his commandments you see the dividing line between a hypocrite and a true Christian is what the old writers would say is the...

38:36 - 40:06 Read in full sermon

The point: True assurance requires universal obedience — not perfect, but a heart committed to keeping all of God's commandments, including those that are costly and cross your strongest desires. Selective, convenient obedience is …

Martin applies Jesus's hyperbolic language about dealing with sins as dear as a right hand or eye to show that a true Christian's love for the Savior and commitment to universal obedience will drive him to mortify even his most cherished sins.

commandments of God with a principle of universal obedience so that the commandments that impinge upon his carnal delights the commandments that cross him in his remaining carnal desires he cries out oh God that all of my ways were directed to keep thy commandments and when he must in obedience to the command be ye holy for I am holy deal with a sin that's as dear as his right hand and his right eye Jesus said for sheer love to the Savior and out of obedience he'll be willing to pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand Jesus stated it beautifully in John 10 when he said my sheep hear...

40:06 - 41:35 Read in full sermon

The point: True assurance requires universal obedience — not perfect, but a heart committed to keeping all of God's commandments, including those that are costly and cross your strongest desires. Selective, convenient obedience is …

Martin expounds John 10:27 by distinguishing two utterances of Christ's voice that true sheep hear: the sweet invitation ('Come all ye that labor and are heavy laden') and the demanding call ('if any man hate not father, mother, his own life, he cannot be my disciple'). The true sheep desires to obey both, not merely the comfortable one.

commandments of God with a principle of universal obedience so that the commandments that impinge upon his carnal delights the commandments that cross him in his remaining carnal desires he cries out oh God that all of my ways were directed to keep thy commandments and when he must in obedience to the command be ye holy for I am holy deal with a sin that's as dear as his right hand and his right eye Jesus said for sheer love to the Savior and out of obedience he'll be willing to pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand Jesus stated it beautifully in John 10 when he said my sheep hear...

40:06 - 41:35 Read in full sermon

The point: A person born of God does not make a practice of sin — not because believers never sin, but because the divine seed within them is incompatible with a lifestyle of sin and produces an inward longing for holiness at the l…

Martin describes the inward mark of genuine regeneration: the believer who loses his temper will blush before brethren and make it right — but equally, he will blush in secret for the sinful dispositions of his heart that no one else sees, going to his knees saying 'Oh God, cleanse the chambers of my soul.'

holy dispositions as well as for holy actions and holy deeds though you may blush in the presence of your fellow Christians if you lose your temper and find yourself restless till you've tracked them all down and said forgive me I was unlike the savior and you go to your closet and ask the Lord to forgive you listen you'll blush just as much when in secret away from the sight of

47:52 - 48:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not explain away the conviction you feel as mere emotional stirring from the preacher — cherish the echoes of God's voice within your bosom. If you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart; the door of mercy is …

Martin discloses that this was one of only two sermons in twenty years of ministry preached entirely without notes or preparatory exegetical work — offered as evidence that he felt uniquely and urgently constrained by God to deliver this message.

and aren't walking in the light and walking in obedience and pursuing holiness of heart God says you're deluded you'll perish in hell unless you come into the orbit of that gracious work of divine begetting the work of cleansing and the work of you you can go through the book of first John and see the other things that John wrote as an indication that the divine begetting had indeed been wrought in the hearts of men but I close now with this summary and final exhortation St. Rowan observed there were two great delusions by which men were ill prepared for eternity one that they could be fit for...

48:54 - 50:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not explain away the conviction you feel as mere emotional stirring from the preacher — cherish the echoes of God's voice within your bosom. If you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart; the door of mercy is …

Martin describes the conviction the congregation was feeling as 'love arrows' and 'gracious arrows' from God — not instruments of harm but of mercy, meant to strip away delusion while the door of mercy stands wide open with a gracious Savior bidding them enter.

come home my friend listen don't go out tonight and say he just got me upset he's emotional he stirred me up that's the voice of God you better cherish those echoes of the voice of the almighty within your bosom today if you hear his voice harden not your heart are there some of you who came with that second delusion oh you really said in that first half of the sermon sock it to him that's it give it to him about halfway through the second part of the sermon you began to feel a little uncomfortable tonight you began to feel a little shaky didn't you as God led his servant to speak in this way ...

51:22 - 52:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not explain away the conviction you feel as mere emotional stirring from the preacher — cherish the echoes of God's voice within your bosom. If you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart; the door of mercy is …

Martin connects the gospel invitation to John 3:14-15 — as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up — and quotes the hymn 'Lifted up was He to die, It is finished was His cry, Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah what a Savior!' to close with the atoning Christ as the ground of hope.

If you read on the third chapter of John Jesus went on from the necessity of the new birth a work which only God can effect and which must be effected if we are to be fit for heaven to speak of his own death upon the cross for the new birth is always effected in connection with the preaching of the gospel the glorious message of Christ dying in the room and stead of sinners and though the mere preaching of the gospel of itself cannot effect the new birth and though I'm theologically astute enough to know that man will not believe unless there is that mysterious divine beginning I know all of t...

52:55 - 54:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not explain away the conviction you feel as mere emotional stirring from the preacher — cherish the echoes of God's voice within your bosom. If you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart; the door of mercy is …

Martin shares an encouraging story: a man he had not seen in thirteen years approached him at a Pittsburgh conference to report that many young people from that summer look back to it as the time God drew them to Himself, and had since grown into mature, church-pillaring adults. Martin notes he had long since abandoned 'cutting notches in the rifle' by counting raised hands and aisle-walkers, trusting instead the preaching of the Word.

God him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out may I share an incident that gives me great encouragement preaching tonight I was at a conference just Friday and Saturday out in the Pittsburgh area and a man approached me at the close of the morning service whom I had not seen as best I can reckon for thirteen years and

54:24 - 54:52 Read in full sermon