Union With Christ, #5

Driving home: The whole idea that a person can be, in Christ, by faith and yet dominated by the flesh. We just call him a carnal Christian. That's like talking about a loyal American patriot who's a communist.

Martin uses the analogy of a 'loyal American patriot who's a communist' to illustrate the mutual exclusivity of being 'in Christ' and yet 'dominated by the flesh,' arguing against the concept of a 'carnal Christian.'

The whole idea that a person can be, in Christ, by faith and yet dominated by the flesh. We just call him a carnal Christian. That's like talking about a loyal American patriot who's a communist.

10:21 - 10:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The whole idea that a person can be, in Christ, by faith and yet dominated by the flesh. We just call him a carnal Christian. That's like talking about a loyal American patriot who's a communist.

Martin shares a biographical anecdote from his itinerant ministry, where observing the state of evangelical churches led him to conclude that many members were likely unconverted, reinforcing the necessity of ethical transformation in true union with Christ.

For any sinner to receive that Spirit in any measure demands ethical and moral and practical transformation of character, of perspective, of motive, of the entirety of life. If any in Christ, new creation, the old is past, behold, they have become new. Unless some of you think, well, you're just parroting a theological position you've inherited, let me say, by way of biography, and you'll get very little biography in my preaching, because God doesn't call us to give biography, but to expound the Scriptures, and I shall never forget when I was in an itinerant ministry for some five years, trave...

11:46 - 13:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Insist that if people are in Christ, there must be ethical and moral indications of that union.

Martin recounts a story of a woman who, after being 'conned' into a sinner's prayer, later wanted 'out' of her salvation, only to be told by a preacher, 'Too late, ma'am, you're already in.' This illustrates the heresy of antinomian 'once saved, always saved' doctrine.

It's nothing but sheer rank antinomianism. Once you've made your decision, you can't get out no matter what you do. A well-known preacher in my area said to a woman who came to him a few weeks after she'd been conned into walking the aisle going into an inquiry room and was programmed into the little syllogistic gibberish of saying the sinner's prayer and being given Protestant absolution and told she was forgiven. When she woke up to everything that happened, she came to the preacher and said, hey, wait a minute, I've been thinking about this business.

32:58 - 33:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not keep back the glorious truth of the indissoluble bond of union with Christ from God's people, especially struggling saints who long for holiness.

He uses the analogy of a soldier on the battlefield to explain how the indissolubility of union with Christ 'nerves the Christian' to fight against sin, knowing victory is sure, unlike a soldier who knows he's beaten.

If it's possible that I can wrestle, fight and pray and buffet my body and mortify the flesh and at the end have it all peter out and come to naught, why bother? Let's eat, drink and be merry and have our heaven now. You see, the man who's out in the battlefield and knows before he ever picks up his sword he's beaten and the army is to be defeated, he doesn't fight with nerves and with vigor, but it's the man who has a promise that he shall be the victor who can stand up against a thousand odds. Bunyan had it, you remember, when he talked about Great Heart whose valiant for truth, whose sword ...

35:12 - 36:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not keep back the glorious truth of the indissoluble bond of union with Christ from God's people, especially struggling saints who long for holiness.

Martin alludes to John Bunyan's character Great Heart, whose sword 'cleaved to his hand,' to illustrate the vigor and certainty with which a Christian fights when assured of victory through indissoluble union.

If it's possible that I can wrestle, fight and pray and buffet my body and mortify the flesh and at the end have it all peter out and come to naught, why bother? Let's eat, drink and be merry and have our heaven now. You see, the man who's out in the battlefield and knows before he ever picks up his sword he's beaten and the army is to be defeated, he doesn't fight with nerves and with vigor, but it's the man who has a promise that he shall be the victor who can stand up against a thousand odds. Bunyan had it, you remember, when he talked about Great Heart whose valiant for truth, whose sword ...

35:12 - 36:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Never hold one analogy of union with Christ in isolation from other analogies, to avoid building a whole doctrine on a single illustration.

Martin recounts a preacher's analogy of a branch not struggling to produce fruit but simply yielding to the vine, to caution against taking one analogy (vine and branches) in isolation and misapplying it to Christian effort.

More foolish teaching has been given on the Christian life when people take one analogy of our union with Christ and build a whole doctrine upon it. For instance one of the analogies we'll look at subsequently is the John 15 analogy of the vine and the branches. I can remember a very earnest godly man teaching on the Christian life saying now how many of you ever saw a branch struggling to produce fruit? Any of you ever see a branch in a vine flexing its knotty little vine-like muscles and saying I've got to bring forth grapes.

40:09 - 40:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Set your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, rather than turning inward to commune with an indwelling Christ.

He highlights the paradox of 'growing stones' in Ephesians 2 to emphasize that biblical analogies are not literal identities, underscoring the unique, supernatural nature of the church's growth in Christ.

Now whoever heard of growing stones? I heard of rolling stones but not growing stones. But that's what we have here. Ephesians chapter 2 So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners but ye are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom?

44:32 - 45:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously the reality of union with Christ, because facing the day of judgment in non-union with Christ would be worse than never being born.

Martin uses the intimate, almost 'spooky' ability of a long-married couple to read each other's thoughts to illustrate the 'whole-souled communion' and 'true biblical mysticism' emphasized in the husband-wife analogy of union with Christ.

move a step higher and we see the analogy of the union between a husband and wife picturing the union of Christ in his church the key passage of course Ephesians 5 22 and 3 and what is the point of emphasis here will those of us who are married we are trying to understand what it is what a mysterious thing I sit and look at my wife's picture there in my motel room and the pictures of my children the fruit of our union and she is external to me I hold mental communion with her as I look at her picture when I pick up the phone and call her I hold verbal communion of thought and yet after 22 year...

55:05 - 56:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously the reality of union with Christ, because facing the day of judgment in non-union with Christ would be worse than never being born.

He quotes Count von Zinzendorf (via Wesley) to express the confidence and assurance a believer has in standing before God on the Day of Judgment, fully absolved through Christ's blood and righteousness, due to union with Christ.

to the Son of God put all these analogies together and what do you have and I hope the cook will forgive me as I give this last paragraph we have the picture of a union that is real that is vital that is intimate and all inclusive in its implications there is the sharing of legal standing the communication of life the interchange of mind and affection the flow of sympathy and sustaining power oh what confidence the child of God has both with respect to his standing before God in time and in the light of that awful day you young people life seems stretched out a long way before you but you hit ...

59:26 - 60:54 Read in full sermon