What Constitutes a Man a Christian?

In this part of the sermon: Before descending to particular exegesis of union with Christ and other doctrines, Martin announces his intent to survey the woods before examining individual trees, identifying…

Martin uses the familiar proverb 'he couldn't see the woods for the trees' to justify his survey approach: he wants the congregation to hold the forest-level picture of the passage before examining the detail of union with Christ and other doctrines in subsequent studies.

How does God make this change? And before we descend to the particulars, and that will bring us into the concern that Mr. Rogers will touch on tonight, the doctrine of union with Christ, which is obviously set before us in verses 5 and following, made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Christ, seated us with Christ, created us anew in Christ, and we will enter, we will enter into some of the most profound concepts to be found anywhere in the Word of God. But before we begin a detailed exposition of these things that the Apostle teaches us, what I want us to do is to stand, as it ...

8:37 - 9:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He's had a life-transforming experience but it had nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

A purposeless, irresponsible young man who cannot hold a job for three weeks is utterly transformed when a young woman tells him she will not marry him unless he gets and keeps a job. He does, and almost overnight becomes a responsible, purposeful young man. Martin's point: a genuine, radical life-change with nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

And they may or may not have the name of Jesus in them. There are young men whose lives have been utterly transformed simply because they fell in love. Here's a young man, shiftless, irresponsible, never holds a job for longer than three weeks, makes enough money to just go off on his next pleasure trip, totally irresponsible, shiftless. What happens?

20:36 - 21:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He's had a life-transforming experience but it had nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

Martin cites Albert Schweitzer, who gave up potential riches in music and philosophy to respond to human need in Africa, and who wrote a book in quest for the historical Jesus without knowing who he was. His transformation was real and admirable but had nothing to do with the Christ of Holy Scripture.

Many a young man has been transformed because he fell in love. That's right. Other people have been transformed because they saw something that deeply moved them. Albert Schweitzer, for instance.

21:50 - 22:03 Read in full sermon

The point: When evaluating any preacher, teacher, or religious system, apply the acid test: what place is given to Jesus Christ? Not just the name of Jesus, but the full biblical person -- his deity, humanity, atoning death, resurr…

Martin notes he has personally met people who were utterly transformed through contact with Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy's writings -- a thorough conversion that had nothing to do with biblical Christianity, reinforcing that religious transformation alone is not Christian conversion.

Transformed. There are people that are transformed when they get hold of a religious idea. I've met people who've never been the same since they came in contact with Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy's thoughts and writings. Transformed.

22:29 - 22:45 Read in full sermon

The point: When evaluating any preacher, teacher, or religious system, apply the acid test: what place is given to Jesus Christ? Not just the name of Jesus, but the full biblical person -- his deity, humanity, atoning death, resurr…

Martin warns that even something of the name of Jesus, of Christ, and of the Bible can be attached to a life-transformation as far removed from Ephesians 2 as night and day. The presence of religious language is not the acid test; the question is what place the biblical Jesus Christ actually occupies.

Listen carefully. There can even be something of the name of Jesus. Something of the name of Christ. Something of the Bible.

22:54 - 23:04 Read in full sermon

The point: When evaluating any preacher, teacher, or religious system, apply the acid test: what place is given to Jesus Christ? Not just the name of Jesus, but the full biblical person -- his deity, humanity, atoning death, resurr…

Martin applies the Christ-centrality test to Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, noting that an excerpt of Moon's speech mentions God repeatedly while the name of Jesus and the name of Christ never appear once. God is merely a springboard to direct followers to Moon himself, who claims to be the hope of America and the world.

That unique personage who is God and man. Jesus of Nazareth who lived in history died in history was buried in history rose in history ascended to the right hand of the Father in history was seated at the Father's right hand and rules in history now. That Jesus that Jesus who is the Christ the anointed prophet priest and king whose word is law whose word is final whose sacrifice is complete whose intercession is all prevailing whose kingship is all embracing that's the question you ask. What place is given to Jesus Christ? For when the Apostle says as he does in verse 5 even when we were dead ...

23:53 - 25:23 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are an unbeliever under divine wrath, your only hope is not to reach within yourself for something -- it is to look to Jesus the Christ who in his measureless grace receives the vilest of sinners, cleanses them, l…

Martin directs listeners to tune in to Herbert W. Armstrong's radio program and listen for anything of the fragrance of the name of Christ. What is central is Armstrong's authoritative interpretation of contemporary problems -- bait to sell literature that hooks people into a deflection from historic Christianity.

and his radio newspaper and his followers come to our door identifying themselves as part of the Holy Spirit Association for the unification of world Christianity ain't that a mouthful? It has nothing to do with the Holy Ghost it has nothing to do with Christianity what place is given to Jesus Christ? And from the excerpt of one of his speeches you read through in the name of God is mentioned time after time that the name of Jesus is not found once the name of Christ is not found once and God is only mentioned as a means to the end to attract you to this man who says in essence I am the hope o...

25:23 - 26:51 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are an unbeliever under divine wrath, your only hope is not to reach within yourself for something -- it is to look to Jesus the Christ who in his measureless grace receives the vilest of sinners, cleanses them, l…

Martin applies the same Christ-centrality test to much that is called biblical Christianity in contemporary evangelicalism, charging that in many quarters Jesus Christ is only peripheral -- he is not the central figure in the proclaimed work of transformation.

today Jesus Christ is peripheral only in the world only peripheral oh I say to you who sit here this morning dead in your trespasses and sins walking according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience under a canopy of divine wrath what is our message our message is not one that calls upon you to reach in within yourself to get hold of something that Jesus Christ destroyeth no no our message is Jesus the Christ is your only hope look to him who in the plentitude of his power and in his measureless grace receiv...

26:51 - 28:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine how you think about your own faith. If you conceive of faith as your contribution that triggers God's saving response, your understanding of grace is defective. Faith must be understood as something that flows fr…

Martin defines grace by where it points: just as a debt points to what the debtor has earned, grace points to the giver. If salvation is conditioned by what man does, the focus is on the man. Grace, by definition, shifts all focus from the recipient to the donor -- which is why Paul calls sinners 'dead.'

it's grace that did it when we ask what was the ultimate intention he says that grace may be displayed and he underlines it again look for by grace have he been saved so you see as the apostle contemplates the transformation and asks the question how does God effect this change not only does he instruct us to the end that Jesus Christ is central but that the biblical concept of grace is dominant the biblical notion of grace well it is kindness to the undeserving it is blessing upon the non-qualified and the whole thrust of the biblical notion of grace is simply this it points away from the rec...

29:49 - 31:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine how you think about your own faith. If you conceive of faith as your contribution that triggers God's saving response, your understanding of grace is defective. Faith must be understood as something that flows fr…

To explain why grace excludes human cooperation, Martin distinguishes a sick person (who may cooperate in healing by soaking a foot or taking medicine) from a dead person. No amount of medicine or footsoaking brings life to a corpse. Since Paul describes sinners as dead, all attention must go to the donor, not the recipient.

it cannot be upon grace the giver so he says if it's of works then it's a matter of debt God just gives the man parallel to equal to standing alongside of anything that the sinner can perform that's why the apostle Paul described him as dead if dead people get life they didn't cooperate if sick people get well they may have cooperated in the process of healing they may have soaked their foot they may have taken their medicine but no amount of soaking the foot of a dead man or giving medicine will bring life you must put the attention upon the donor not upon the recipient grace is always contra...

31:18 - 32:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine how you think about your own faith. If you conceive of faith as your contribution that triggers God's saving response, your understanding of grace is defective. Faith must be understood as something that flows fr…

Martin distinguishes two radically different ways of understanding faith: as something the sinner presents to God to trigger the salvation process, versus something that flows from God in the very process of saving. The first view is incompatible with grace; faith must be seen as part of salvation by grace, not its initiating cause.

if you think of faith in any other light you don't understand faith in the whole economy of salvation when Paul introduces human faith in verse 8 he doesn't introduce it to cancel the concept of grace he doesn't grace is blessing to the undeserving whatever then place faith has in this matter of being saved I must not think of my faith as something I present to God that triggers the whole process no I must think of it as something that flows from God in the process of saving me and there's all the difference in the world I must not think of faith as something I put into it to trigger it it's s...

32:45 - 34:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine how you think about your own faith. If you conceive of faith as your contribution that triggers God's saving response, your understanding of grace is defective. Faith must be understood as something that flows fr…

Martin claims Christianity is uniquely the only religion that says acceptance with God rests solely on God's grace. Every other world religion requires the creature to bring himself into divine favor by performance, attainment, or ritual -- whereas the biblical God himself removes every obstacle and brings the sinner into favor purely by undeserved mercy.

but there is no religion under heaven that says the acceptance of the sinner with the deity rests solely upon the grace of the deity in all the religions of the world it is the creature who by his performance and attainments in one way or another brings himself into the favor of the deity whereas the pervasive emphasis of the word of God is that it is the offended God himself who removes every obstacle in his own character and then in the sinner to bring the sinner into his favor purely by grace undeserved mercy mercy and kindness to the ill deserting and once again I say when you hear anyone ...

34:15 - 35:43 Read in full sermon

The point: When a Jehovah's Witness or any other door-to-door religious canvasser comes to your home, disrupt their prepared presentation and do genuine evangelism by asking one question: 'What place does the grace of God have in a…

Martin quotes several stanzas of John Newton's 'Amazing Grace' as the song God puts in the heart of every person who moves from the before of verses 1-3 to the after of verses 4-10, illustrating what a grace-dominated heart sounds like.

by your impenitence grace that gives you life while you trample underfoot the blood of his own dear son and resist the overtures of mercy oh my friend if you are ever to be saved it will be by grace and grace alone the song that God will put into the heart of every person who comes from verses one to three into verses four to ten is the song of John Newton amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see it was grace that taught my heart to fear grace my fears relieved his grace has brought me safe thus far grace will lead m...

35:43 - 37:11 Read in full sermon

The point: When a Jehovah's Witness or any other door-to-door religious canvasser comes to your home, disrupt their prepared presentation and do genuine evangelism by asking one question: 'What place does the grace of God have in a…

Martin quotes Toplady's hymn ('A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing') as a further expression of the grace-dominated heart that salvation produces, alongside the observation that election, calling, keeping, and glorification are all described in Scripture as acts of grace.

by your impenitence grace that gives you life while you trample underfoot the blood of his own dear son and resist the overtures of mercy oh my friend if you are ever to be saved it will be by grace and grace alone the song that God will put into the heart of every person who comes from verses one to three into verses four to ten is the song of John Newton amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see it was grace that taught my heart to fear grace my fears relieved his grace has brought me safe thus far grace will lead m...

35:43 - 37:11 Read in full sermon

The point: When a Jehovah's Witness or any other door-to-door religious canvasser comes to your home, disrupt their prepared presentation and do genuine evangelism by asking one question: 'What place does the grace of God have in a…

Martin advises believers to disrupt any door-to-door religious canvasser's packaged spiel by asking one simple question: 'What place does the grace of God have in all you want to tell me?' He notes the Jehovah's Witness, whose conscience is bound to earning escape from Armageddon by logging twenty hours a week of tract distribution, knows nothing of grace and will be utterly derailed.

is grace dominant let that be the basis upon which you assess the peddler of religious thoughts who comes to your doors you ask him that question if you want to untrack him from his pre his packaged little spiel you just interrupt him and say sir ma'am I'd like to ask you one simple question in all that you want to tell me and teach me what place does the grace of God have the poor fellow gets so derailed he won't be able to find where the tracks are grace what's grace the poor Jehovah's witness whose conscience is bound to feel that somehow he's going to escape Armageddon he's got to put in h...

37:11 - 38:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not settle for a Christianity that merely adjusts a few outward behaviors or secures your eternal destiny while leaving you essentially unchanged. The new creation is not a few new activities tacked onto the old thing…

Martin describes the radical contrast of the transformation: the Ephesians went from serfdom and slavery (walking according to the prince of the power of the air) to being raised up and seated with Christ in a place of enthronement and royal power. 'From death to life; from serfdom to a royal throne.'

dead was that your real condition now he says in verse 5 he has made us alive what can be more radical than the difference between life and death you were dead with a true death you've been made alive with a true life you were enslaved look at verse 2 ye once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the powers of the air he pictures them as those who were in a state of serfdom a state of slavery and of bondage now he says you've not only been made alive but you've been raised up with him and made to sit with him well where does he sit in a place of enthronement a...

40:11 - 41:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not settle for a Christianity that merely adjusts a few outward behaviors or secures your eternal destiny while leaving you essentially unchanged. The new creation is not a few new activities tacked onto the old thing…

Before conversion the Ephesians' walk, talk, and entire lifestyle were monuments to satanic bondage; after the transformation they become monuments to the power of God working in grace through the salvation of his Son. Martin uses this image to show the pervasive, public, visible nature of the transformation.

dead was that your real condition now he says in verse 5 he has made us alive what can be more radical than the difference between life and death you were dead with a true death you've been made alive with a true life you were enslaved look at verse 2 ye once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the powers of the air he pictures them as those who were in a state of serfdom a state of slavery and of bondage now he says you've not only been made alive but you've been raised up with him and made to sit with him well where does he sit in a place of enthronement a...

40:11 - 41:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not settle for a Christianity that merely adjusts a few outward behaviors or secures your eternal destiny while leaving you essentially unchanged. The new creation is not a few new activities tacked onto the old thing…

Martin describes -- then insists it is no caricature but an accurate representation of common evangelical expectations -- a truncated view of salvation: God blots out your sins so you won't go to hell, cleans up the grosser outward sins, helps you do a few Christian things, and even carnal Christians will make it in the end. He argues this view will not fit Ephesians 2.

he's saying we must never think of the transformation of grace as a surface transformation we must never think of it in terms of a mere juggling of the legal records of heaven he is telling us that the transformation is an experimental reality it's something that occurs in us and it is a radical transformation death to life bondage to freedom and all of the contrast that i've enunciated in the passage and then he's telling us that the transformation is radical and pervasive so much so that he calls it a new creation we are his workmanship created god has made something new created in christ je...

41:39 - 43:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Evaluate every ministry you support or attend by whether it sets forth the biblical Christ or merely promotes a preacher's name and face. Sinners are transformed by encounter with Christ, not with celebrity preachers.

Martin explains why Trinity Baptist refuses to conduct evangelistic campaigns with big-name preachers or have preachers' faces placarded around the town: the concern is not to confront men with the personality of a preacher but to set before them the glorious Christ. That, he insists, is how sinners will be transformed.

constantly evaluate all ministries by that touchstone not just the mouthing of the name of jesus now but by the setting forth of the biblical concept of who he is and what he's done the perfection of his work the glory of his person the you put that to the test of the so-called prophets of our day they come up one day and that's why we refuse to conduct evangelistic campaigns with big name preachers and have the faces of preachers placarded around the town our concern is not to confront men with the face and name of preachers but to set before them our glorious rock that's how sinners will be ...

46:05 - 47:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask yourself whether grace is genuinely dominant in your Christian experience -- not just intellectually affirmed, but felt as the living wonder that you who were once dead are now alive, that what was once drudgery is n…

Martin shares a live, autobiographical moment from that very service: as the pastor led them in prayer and the congregation sang psalms and hymns, his heart went out to God. He says, 'amazing grace, that I who once was so dead that prayers were mere noise in my ears, psalms and hymns were drudgery upon my lips -- these things are real, they're my delight.' He offers this as a living illustration of what it looks like when grace is truly operative.

life with him responding to you amazing grace that I who once was so dead that prayers were mere noise in my ears psalms and hymns were drudgery upon my lips these things are real they're my delight is that you and it's all because of grace what place does grace have in your so-called experience my third question is is your experience sixteen ounces to the pound biblical has it been radical experimental pervasive is there any reason to call you a new creature not just a few new activities tacked on to the old thing but new from the inside out a new wellspring of hope and desire and longing wha...

47:34 - 49:02 Read in full sermon