Heart and Life-Transforming Conversion Unto God

In this part of the sermon: Martin surveys the historical background of Jeremiah 6:16 - Jeremiah's identity as a young priest called to the prophetic office, the scope of his ministry to the two southern…

Martin uses the image of 'parking' on a text to explain his method: before dwelling on Jeremiah 6:16, he must sketch its broader background so hearers are persuaded that words spoken hundreds of years ago have direct authority over them today.

you need to think with me for about the next 20 minutes while I try to sketch in the broader background of those words so that when we park on them, you are persuaded with me that we have a right to park on them, that when God spoke those words through the prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years ago, they are words that speak, directly to you, to you, to you, to me here in this setting today. So we're going to spend a few minutes considering the prophet, the people, and the burden of his message. Who was this man Jeremiah?

2:09 - 2:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin surveys the historical background of Jeremiah 6:16 - Jeremiah's identity as a young priest called to the prophetic office, the scope of his ministry to the two southern…

Martin notes that Jeremiah was likely in his early 20s (priests began functioning at age 20) when called, and felt the awkwardness of the call, protesting in Jeremiah 1:6 that he was just a child and did not know how to speak.

Well, according to the first chapter, which was read in your hearing, he was a priest by identification and profession. The priests in Israel were, taken, as you remember, from the tribe of Levi, and they would begin to function as priests at age 20. So Jeremiah most likely was a man in his very early 20s when the word of the Lord came to him indicating that he was to be a prophet. And he felt the awkwardness of this so that in verse 6 of chapter 1 he said, Oh Lord, I don't know how to speak.

2:53 - 3:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin surveys the historical background of Jeremiah 6:16 - Jeremiah's identity as a young priest called to the prophetic office, the scope of his ministry to the two southern…

Martin contrasts Jeremiah's ministry with ease: he was not living in a manse or church-subsidized building but was thrown into dungeons, persecuted by the people and leaders, yet remained a faithful mouthpiece of the Lord for over 50 years.

He wasn't living in a manse or a parsonage or some church subsidized building living the easy life. This man was thrown into dungeons, into prison. He was persecuted. He was opposed by the people, by the leaders.

5:10 - 5:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds Jeremiah 2:11-13 and surrounding chapters to describe Judah's spiritual state: corporate apostasy, shameless self-justification, surface religion without reality…

Martin voices the false prophets' counter-message: 'Hey, this guy Jeremiah, he's an old crank, a young crank. He's telling you things are bad. God is angry with you. Don't believe him. You're God's people. You have peace.'

Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. The false prophets came along and said, Hey, this guy Jeremiah, he's an old crank, a young crank. He's telling you things are bad.

9:18 - 9:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Every time the Scriptures are responsibly expounded and applied, the living God who made you is saying something directly to you - receive preaching as personal address from the God of the universe.

Martin addresses the instinct to credit one's parents for one's existence, correcting it: 'Oh, my father and mother created me. No, they were simply instruments in the hands of the God who is the creator of all men and all things. It is He that has made us and not we ourselves.'

You did not create yourself. Oh, my father and mother, created me. No, they were simply instruments in the hands of the God who is the creator of all men and all things. It is He that has made us and not we ourselves, the psalmist says.

15:43 - 16:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Every time the Scriptures are responsibly expounded and applied, the living God who made you is saying something directly to you - receive preaching as personal address from the God of the universe.

Martin uses the image of a man on a journey who has lost his way and stands at a fork, uncertain whether to go left or right - God's first command is to stand still and reflect before choosing a direction, rather than rushing forward driven by others.

Shall I go right? I'm at a fork in the road. What shall I do? A certain influence has been upon me to bring me where I am.

17:17 - 17:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop and reflect on where you are spiritually. Do not be driven forward by what others think, what others are doing, or the choices others are making. Stand, look, and think.

Martin illustrates the common human difficulty with discarding old things by describing the torturous experience of trying to clean out a closet and throw away old worn-out sneakers you no longer wear but cannot bring yourself to chuck - God is not sanctifying something merely because it is old.

You go to clean out a closet, and it's torturous to get rid of an old thing. It's torturous to get rid of an old pair of sneakers that are worn out. You don't wear them anymore, but it's so hard to just chuck them out. So God is not sanctifying something simply because it's old.

19:17 - 19:30 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin unpacks the authority behind Jeremiah 6:16 (Yahweh the self-existent covenant God), then works through the three imperatives - stand and look, ask for the old paths, walk…

Martin cites Matthew Henry's comment on Jeremiah 6:16: 'As for the old paths, the paths prescribed by the law of God, the written word, that is the true standard of antiquity. Ask for the paths that the patriarchs traveled before you. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And as you hope to inherit the promises made to them, tread in their steps.'

In other words, let your life be ordered and regulated and determined by your understanding of what that old path is, wherein is the good way. Old Matthew Henry has a wonderful comment on this text that captures this. As for the old paths, the paths prescribed by the law of God, the written word, that is the true standard of antiquity. Ask for the paths that the patriarchs traveled before you.

22:08 - 22:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin unpacks the authority behind Jeremiah 6:16 (Yahweh the self-existent covenant God), then works through the three imperatives - stand and look, ask for the old paths, walk…

Martin connects the promise 'you shall find rest for your souls' in Jeremiah 6:16 with Jesus's exact same language in Matthew 11:28-29, arguing that walking in the old paths finds its fulfillment in coming to Christ and embracing His yoke.

They're the exact words found in the lips of Jesus in Psalm 128. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall what? Find rest for your souls.

24:09 - 24:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Refuse to be satisfied with a reduced, debased version of Christian conversion. The stakes are too high - accepting a counterfeit is to do so at the peril of your soul.

Martin surveys the New Testament's multi-faceted language for conversion: new birth (John 3:3), new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), new man (Ephesians 4:24), spiritual resurrection from the dead (Ephesians 2:1), turning from darkness to light, deliverance from the kingdom of darkness into God's kingdom.

It's described as a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is past, the new has come. It's described as becoming a new man.

26:43 - 26:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Refuse to be satisfied with a reduced, debased version of Christian conversion. The stakes are too high - accepting a counterfeit is to do so at the peril of your soul.

Martin uses the economic metaphor of debased currency to describe how the biblical description of a true Christian has been cheapened in the contemporary church, reducing conversion to shuffling the furniture of our minds and having a few new thoughts about God and church and Bible.

And for us to be satisfied with anything less is to do so at the peril of our souls. And we live in a day when the currency of the biblical description of a true Christian has been horribly debased and devalued. And so tonight I want to call you to stand and look and ask and walk in the old path of a heart life transforming conversion to God. And I know of no other single passage that more succinctly and clearly

27:57 - 28:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: by nature every one of us has his back turned against God.

Martin uses the physical action of turning toward where Pastor Hughes is seated in the room to explain what 'turning unto God' means: prior to turning toward something you must have been turned away from it, so by nature every person has their back turned to God.

If I'm going to turn unto, it means I'm in the opposite direction when I do the turning. So when the apostle says these Thessalonians turned unto God, So when the apostle says these Thessalonians turned unto God, meaning them and us, that by nature every one of us has his back turned against God. If you want to know the Bible's description of every one of us in the condition with which we come out of our mother's wounds, we are born and we live as the turned-backed creatures. We've got our backs turned to God.

34:57 - 35:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: by nature every one of us has his back turned against God.

Martin develops the metaphor of humanity as 'the back-turned creatures' - born and living with our backs turned to God, not wanting His knowledge, His claims, or His communion and fellowship - which is the Bible's description of the natural condition of every person out of their mother's womb.

We don't want the knowledge of God. We don't want the claims of God. We don't want the communion and fellowship of God. The Bible says our sin has made us those with the backs turned to God.

35:39 - 35:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: by nature every one of us has his back turned against God.

Martin uses the metaphor of physical turning to describe the purpose of the atonement: Christ came to take people with backs turned to God and radically change them that they become those with faces towards God. Jesus died to effect this turning in all His people.

He came to take people with the backs turned to God and radically change them that they become those with faces towards God. Jesus died to effect this turning in all of His people. That's why Peter could say in 1 Peter 3.18, That's why Peter could say in 1 Peter 3.18,

36:18 - 36:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: An idol is any person or anything that occupies a place in your heart that belongs only to God.

Martin gives a precise and memorable definition of idolatry applicable to both pagan Gentiles and morally respectable Jews: any person or anything that occupies a place in your heart that belongs only to God - whatever that is, that is your idol.

An idol is any person or anything that occupies a place in your heart that belongs only to God. Any person, anything that occupies a place in your heart that belongs only to God, that's your idol. Whatever it is, that's your idol. God demands that we love Him with what?

40:42 - 41:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your life honestly: could anyone watching you live from Monday through Saturday night say there is no explanation for how you live except that this man is living unto God?

Martin uses the daily ritual of looking in the mirror - shaving, trimming a beard, or wiping a rag over a bald head - as a picture of the universal idol of self: by nature that is your god, and you look at your god in the mirror every morning.

That's your God, yourself. You look at your God in the mirror every morning when you shave, or trim your beard, or wipe a rag over your bald head. Whatever you do in front of the mirror, whatever you do in front of the mirror in the morning, that's your God. That's your God.

42:40 - 42:55 Read in full sermon

The point: True conversion produces concrete, practical outworking in the use of time, thought, desire, and the members of the body - examine whether your daily life reflects a decisive submitting to God as Lord.

Martin taps his fingers on the pulpit and references his own cochlear implant as tangible, real objects to illustrate that God is equally real - we cannot see or touch Him, but there is nothing more real in all God's universe than the God whose universe it is.

As surely as this pulpit is something real and tangible, you hear me tapping my fingers upon it. As surely as my nose and the cochlear implant are real objects that I can feel and touch, there is a real, living, true God. We cannot see him. We cannot touch him.

47:30 - 47:49 Read in full sermon

The point: True conversion produces concrete, practical outworking in the use of time, thought, desire, and the members of the body - examine whether your daily life reflects a decisive submitting to God as Lord.

Martin quotes a hymn line to capture the essence of the decisive submitting: 'Here, Lord, I give myself to you. Tis all that I can do.' This is the language of the heart truly converted to the living and true God.

But there's nothing more real in all of God's universe than the God whose universe it is. And when you turn to serve, it's not a combination of ideas and notions to whom and to what and to which you turn. You turn to this living and this true God with an attitude that says in the language of the hymn, Here, Lord, I give myself to you. Tis all that I can do.

47:49 - 48:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds the waiting for Christ's return in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 as a decisive refocusing from the temporal to the eternal - genuine love for Christ inevitably produces…

Martin creates a personal scenario: calling his wife from a trip, telling her he misses her but is really not anxious to see her - she would not believe it because genuine love for someone from whom you are separated inevitably produces a yearning to be with them face to face, hand to hand, arms to arm.

Those times when I have to be away from my wife and I keep in touch by phone, do you think she'd believe me if I called home from wherever I was and I said, Dear, I'm thinking about you. I really miss you. But by the way, I'm really not anxious to see you. She'd say, What?

52:00 - 52:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds the waiting for Christ's return in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 as a decisive refocusing from the temporal to the eternal - genuine love for Christ inevitably produces…

Martin explains how believers come to love the unseen Christ by reading the Gospel records and epistles that reveal what He has done for sinners - the Holy Spirit reveals Him through Scripture so that we love Him as Peter says, whom having not seen yet we love, and then long to see Him face to face.

And because the Scripture says, we're not going to see Him until through the door of death, absent from the body, at home with the Lord, or more gloriously, at His return in glory and power, which is what Paul is referring to here. John says, We shall be like Him when He is manifested, for we shall see Him as He is. And the Jesus whom we've come to know and love in the Scriptures, as we've read the Gospel records and we read the epistles of what He's done for us, we've come to love an unseen Christ, whom having not seen, Peter says, yet you love Him.

53:46 - 54:30 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a husband, test the reality of your conversion by whether you are genuinely working, by grace, to love your wife as Christ loved the church rather than indulging selfishness and angry reactions.

Martin applies the bond-slave disposition to marriage: the willing slave of God, when told to love his wife as Christ loved the church, says 'Lord, by Your grace I'll at least begin to learn how to love her that way,' trampling underfoot selfishness, insensitivity, and silly reactions.

Trample underfoot my selfishness, my insensitivity, my silly reactions and anger at her. Oh, Lord, I want to be Your slave. And when You tell me how to treat my wife, I'm committed by Your grace to treat her that way. When You tell me that I'm to be honest to a penny in rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, I'm ready to make up my income tax forms with You looking over my shoulder.

58:52 - 59:25 Read in full sermon

The point: The bond-slave disposition of true conversion extends to specific civic duties - fill out your income tax forms with God looking over your shoulder, as someone who does not steal from the government.

Martin applies Christian slavery to the specific duty of honest tax returns: a true Christian renders to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, filling out his income tax forms with God looking over his shoulder so he can hold them up and say 'Oh God, I'm Your slave and I'm not stealing from Uncle.'

And to make out that form in such a way when I'm done I can hold it up and say, Oh, God, I'm Your slave. And You've told me to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. And You've told me You shall not steal. And I'm not stealing from uncle.

59:25 - 59:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the Joel Osteens and his ilk are lulling thousands into hell.

Martin appeals to the consensus of the Reformers and Puritans: Whitefield preached this doctrine of conversion; Wesley, though differing in theology at places, preached the same; Jonathan Edwards preached it; John Owen preached it; Spurgeon preached it - it is what every true servant of God preaches.

This is what the Bible says. This is what Whitfield preached. And though Wesley had a differing theology at places, this is what Wesley preached. Jonathan Edward preached.

60:46 - 60:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the Joel Osteens and his ilk are lulling thousands into hell.

Martin names Joel Osteen and his ilk as the modern counterparts of Jeremiah's false prophets who healed the hurt of the people slightly, saying the gospel of 'a little touch of Jesus and a little touch of Christian faith' is no biblical gospel of conversion and is lulling thousands into hell.

This is what John Owen preached. This is what Spurgeon preached. This is what every true servant of God preaches. And this business of just getting a little touch of Jesus and a little touch of Christian faith and everything is all right, the Joel Osteens and his ilk are lulling thousands into hell.

60:57 - 61:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not repeat the tragedy of Israel, who slapped God's graciously outstretched hands and said they would not walk therein. The invitation is open tonight; do not refuse it.

Martin reads the last clause of Jeremiah 6:16 which he had withheld until the sermon's end - Israel's response to God's gracious invitation was to slap His outstretched hands and say 'no thank you God, I'm content to go my own way.' He pleads that this may not be said of any hearer.

God graciously stretched out his hands and they slapped his hands and said no thank you God. I'm content to go my own way. May God grant that that may not be said of any one of you men. Let's pray together.

62:22 - 62:47 Read in full sermon