Union With Christ, #6

Driving home: I always counter by saying, no, God has given me a whole ring of keys. There is no one key that unlocks the circle. There is no one secret to any aspect of the Christian life. God has given us a whole ring of keys.

Martin uses the analogy of a ring of keys to explain that no single biblical truth is the exclusive key to any aspect of Christian experience; rather, God provides many keys that collectively unlock understanding and practice.

So I am making no attempt to be exhaustive as to the number of areas that are touched, nor will I attempt to be thorough in my treatment of any one of the areas that I do touch. So we're not going to be very broad tonight and we're not going to be very deep. In the third place, I want you to understand that I am not inferring in any way that the reality of our union with Christ is the only revealed truth which impinges upon the specific areas touched upon. For instance, we shall touch upon union with Christ in relationship to how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, I am not sayin...

2:06 - 3:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I always counter by saying, no, God has given me a whole ring of keys. There is no one key that unlocks the circle. There is no one secret to any aspect of the Christian life. God has given us a whole ring of keys.

He uses the metaphor of charting a course and hoisting sails to describe the beginning of the sermon, trusting the Holy Spirit to provide the 'wind' for both preacher and listener to reach their destination.

And all we want to do is look at the passages in which God says, there's a key, one of the many, that fits this particular area of concern. So then, in a positive way, what I'm going to attempt to do is to take up a few matters in a relatively cursory way, hoping and praying. And here's my great ambition tonight, and I hope it's not a fool's ambition, that the result of our study will be that, you will then begin in a new way to meditate upon this whole subject, to trace out other areas that arise in your own study of the Word of God. And as you meditate upon them and seek to assimilate them, ...

3:57 - 5:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: An intelligent, believing grasp upon the reality of his union with Christ will greatly assist the individual Christian in the attainment of spiritual stability, progress in personal sanctification, and growth in realized…

Martin quotes Spurgeon: "faith may swim where reason may only wade," to illustrate that while reason may struggle with the mysteries of union with Christ, faith can fully embrace these truths.

You see, these truths concerning union with Christ are addressed to faith. They are to be the object of the believer's trust. And as Spurgeon said, faith may swim where reason may only wade. And we've been dealing with truths in the presence of which reason, reason can only wade.

9:15 - 9:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your spiritual stability: are you rooted in Christ, or still hoping for some new doctrine or experience? Seek to know what is yours in union with Christ.

He uses the metaphor of a 'cork on an ocean, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine' to describe unstable Christians who lack an intelligent grasp of union with Christ.

And so many poor Christians are like that person described in Ephesians 4. Tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine like a cork on an ocean. That's the history of some Christians. Never a place of stability.

19:28 - 19:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He continues on personal sanctification, referencing Colossians 3 for the emphasis on resurrection with Christ and putting to death earthly members. He then expounds 1 Corinthians…

Martin uses the analogy of eating when hungry to contrast the Corinthians' view of fornication, arguing that the body is not for fornication in the same way the belly is for food, but for the Lord.

You Corinthians, you act as though fornication was, in the realm of male-female relationships, what eating is in the presence of a hungry... Tummy and food.

31:26 - 31:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Arm your mind and spirit with every legitimate weapon against sexual impurity, remembering that your body belongs to Jesus Christ.

He shares anecdotes of a preacher's wife confessing adultery and excommunicating homosexuals claiming to be Christians, to emphasize the pervasive nature of sexual sin and the urgent need for spiritual weapons against it.

In the past few months in my own study, there are times when I felt... Like I needed to have a bath.

34:43 - 34:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines realized communion as an experiential, felt Christ, akin to a deep marital relationship. He explains that this communion is central to union with Christ, maintained…

He uses the analogy of a husband and wife's 'realized communion' to explain what he means by 'realized communion with Christ,' emphasizing a delightful flow of mind, thought, and affection without tension.

Let me touch briefly this third area of the implications for the individual believer. It has to do with what I've called realized communion with Christ. And what do I mean by realized communion with Christ? Well, I mean exactly in the realm of the spiritual what every husband and wife who have any kind of relationship understand in the natural human relationship.

37:04 - 37:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not look upon your devotions as legalistic duty, but come to the Word to meet your Lord and hold communion with Him.

Martin quotes George Whitfield's phrase "experiencing a felt Christ" to further define realized communion, noting that even a Calvinist emphasized this experiential aspect.

Realized communion with Christ. To use Whitfield's favorite term, experiencing a felt Christ. That was a Calvinist who said that, not a Pentecostal. Again and again Whitfield said, I fear most ministers preach an unfa...

38:09 - 38:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In that organic relationship, the Lord Jesus regards our treatment of all or any of the members as our treatment of him, the head. He regards the treatment of the members as treatment of himself because it is Christ's bo…

He uses the crude illustration of attaching a new finger to a body to explain how, when joined to Christ, believers are immediately joined to all existing members of His body, with the life of the body flowing into them.

we are immediately joined to all the existing members of His body. Let me try to use a crude illustration. If I had been born with just three fingers and a thumb, had no little finger, and lived to age thirty with that constituting the organic whole of my body, if they were to take the finger from someone who had willed a finger to anyone who might need one, and if they had operations by which they could attach fingers where there are none, the moment the doctor would perform the operation which would attach that finger to the rest of the body, and the moment they sewed together the blood vess...

41:45 - 43:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He transitions to the second main category: the practical implications for believers as organic parts of Christ's body. He explains that union with Christ immediately joins…

He uses the common saying "Touch my kids and you touch me" or "Touch my wife and you touch me" to contrast with Christ's statement, emphasizing that Christ's words are not sentimental but matters of truth due to organic union.

Now that again is not just a sort of sentimental idea. Touch my kids and you touch me, someone says. Touch my wife and you touch me. Well, there's a sense in which that's true, but we all understand what that sense is.

47:57 - 48:10 Read in full sermon

The point: If you get hold of the truth of union with Christ and with one another, it will produce sensitive caring, causing you to reach out to those excluded or struggling in fellowship.

He uses the example of caring for a corn on one's toe or a bunion on a foot to illustrate how believers should care for the less attractive or afflicted members of the body of Christ, as described in 1 Corinthians 12.

What gets cared for? Like a corn on your toe or the toe that has a corn or a bunion or some other kind of affliction on a foot that's not a very pretty appendage. Well, Paul saw that in his day and probably much more because of having to walk in sandals over rough terrain. He says in verse 24, whereas our comely parts have no need, but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.

50:01 - 50:38 Read in full sermon

The point: When tempted to speak negatively about a brother or sister, remember they are a member of Christ's body and your own, and refuse to wound them.

Martin uses the vivid metaphor of a man picking at his own body with a lance, scraping scabs, to illustrate the destructive nature of gossiping and prodding fellow believers, who are members of the same body.

Dare I pick and wound and stab another member of the same body? What would you think of a man that stood on a street corner with a lance picking at his own body all day, scraping scabs off when it just begins to heal, scrapes it off. You'd say something wrong. Isn't that what some of you do with your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ?

55:20 - 55:52 Read in full sermon

The point: When tempted to speak negatively about a brother or sister, remember they are a member of Christ's body and your own, and refuse to wound them.

He shares a personal story of being weary and tempted to dismiss a difficult, socially awkward believer, but being reminded that ministering to that soul is ministering to Christ Himself, providing fresh strength.

Your lance is your tongue and you pick and you prod and you scrape. And Christ says the way you treat the members of my body is the way you treat me. I tell you I know of nothing that has been a more powerful incentive in my own life in seeking to develop a loving relationship to anyone who in the judgment of charity I must regard a brother or sister than this truth. There have been times when I've been weary, I've been tired and I said Lord I can't talk to anybody else, I can't listen to anyone else's problem and along came one of the Lord's children, seemed to be one of the Lord's children, ...

55:52 - 57:22 Read in full sermon