What is a Biblical Christian?

The point: It is important to focus on the question 'What is a Christian?' lest anyone fail to get the heart of the biblical answer.

Martin uses Einstein's theory of relativity and the mystery of a cow producing white milk from green grass to illustrate that ignorance of many things is not tragic or fatal, unlike ignorance of what it means to be a Christian.

There are many things concerning which ignorance or indifference are neither tragic nor fatal. There are many of us sitting here this morning who will both live and die absolutely ignorant of Einstein's theory of relativity. Now that ignorance is neither tragic nor is it fatal. So, some of you children here, you're ignorant this morning, you'll be ignorant tomorrow morning and all the mornings of your life,

0:00 - 0:37 Read in full sermon

The point: People should have a working model for communicating the gospel to others.

He describes the common notion that being christened in infancy and confirmed later makes one a Christian, highlighting this as a superficial understanding.

For some people, a Christian is anyone who is not a Muslim, a Jew, or an atheist. And if you don't fit into one of those three categories, you must be a Christian. For others, a Christian is someone who has been christened. He had a priest or a minister rub a little water on his forehead and pronounce over him some mumbo-jumbo in his infancy.

5:19 - 5:41 Read in full sermon

The point: People should have a working model for communicating the gospel to others.

Martin points out the idea that being a kind, gentle, and considerate person who tries to do the 'Christian thing' is sufficient to be a Christian.

And then around puberty, he or she got confirmed and is in some way or other connected with some visible branch of the Christian church. And in the minds of many, that's what it means to be a Christian. There are yet others. To be a Christian means to be kind, to be gentle, to be considerate, to make an honest effort to live by the good rule and do the Christian thing that constitutes a person a Christian.

5:41 - 6:08 Read in full sermon

The point: People should have a working model for communicating the gospel to others.

He mentions the belief that having a religious crisis that helps one 'get his act together' makes him a Christian.

For yet others, if one has had some kind of a religious crisis in some way connected to some degree with Jesus, that in some way or another helped a person to feel good and get his act together, he must be a Christian. Well, you see, none of those notions has any foundation in the Word of God. None whatsoever. And yet those are notions that are widespread right in our own day.

6:09 - 6:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now, one of the most wonderful and amazing things about true Bible Christianity is that it is essentially, and fundamentally, a religion for sinners.

Martin emphasizes that true Christianity is fundamentally a religion for sinners, not for good, strong, noble, or philosophical people, citing Jesus' interaction with Pharisees in Luke 5.

Well, the first part of the answer is this. A Christian is one who has honestly faced the personal problem of sin. A Christian is one, be it a five-year-old boy or a seventy-year-old man, be it a woman, be it someone from a very moral, upright background, or someone who came out of the most immoral, unstructured background, whoever that person may be, whatever his background, a Christian is someone who has honestly faced the personal problem of sin.

8:10 - 8:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously the bad record that would meet you in the day of judgment.

He references John Bunyan's description of Christian, who set out on his journey when he understood from the book (Bible) that he must die and go to judgment and was not prepared, knowing he had a bad record.

Isn't that the picture Bunyan gives of his pilgrim? When did he set out on that journey? He said when he understood from the book in his hands that he must die and go to judgment and he was not prepared for such an experience. He said, I know from the book in my hand that I must die and go to judgment and I'm not prepared for that.

19:57 - 20:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Take seriously your personal problem of a bad record and a bad heart.

Martin uses the example of children feigning innocence when caught fighting by parents to illustrate the natural deceitfulness of the human heart.

Oh, you children, how easy it is to deceive. We can deceive with a look. You know that you started to fight with your brother or sister, and yet when your mom or dad comes into the room to break it up, you look up and say, well, who me? Oh, you're the look of innocence.

23:17 - 23:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Focus on your personal problem of sin, not just sin in society.

He uses the parable of the publican in Luke 19, who could not even lift his eyes to heaven and cried, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner,' as an example of someone who has taken his personal sin seriously.

But the person who's come with David to say against thee and thee only have I sinned. That's a Christian. That's a Christian. A Christian is someone who's taken the place with that man described by our Lord in Luke 19, the publican, who stood at a distance would not so much as even lift up his eyes to heaven when he thought of heaven, he thought of God.

25:50 - 26:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the second component: seriously considering the divine remedy for sin. He highlights that this remedy is divinely initiated (God's initiative, John 3:16…

Martin compares different remedies for physical ailments (pills, diet, therapy, climate change) to illustrate that the remedy for sin comes in specific ways, bound up in a person.

You see, certain remedies come to us in a pill. Other remedies may come to us in a diet. Other remedies may come to us in certain ways. Certain forms of therapy.

30:48 - 30:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The heart of the message of the cross is this. Jesus took what sinners deserved.

He describes the darkness over the land from noon to three o'clock during Christ's crucifixion as a manifestation of God's judgment on sin, when the Father punished His Son.

He punished his own dear son. And when you children are reading your gospels and you come to those words where it says there was darkness over the whole land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour that's noonday. Right about this time if you go outside in a few minutes you see the sun if it's there and not hidden by the clouds is right at its height its brightest and warmest. It says from high noon to three o'clock in the afternoon there was darkness over the whole land.

35:33 - 36:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the second component: seriously considering the divine remedy for sin. He highlights that this remedy is divinely initiated (God's initiative, John 3:16…

Martin recounts sitting with someone whose past was filled with grievous sin and assuring them that there is nothing they could confess that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse, illustrating the adequacy of the remedy.

Oh listen dear young person man, woman, boy or girl that provision is adequate no matter what you've done. God but you say preacher you don't know what I've done. It was my joy just this past week to sit down with someone whose past is filled with the most grievous kinds of sin and to break this person off and say look my friend you can sit here for the next 24 hours and pour out a tale true in every detail about the sins you've done but there is nothing you can tell me about but that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot cleanse it. Hallelujah.

38:43 - 39:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Have you seriously considered the divine remedy for sin (Jesus Christ, His cross, its adequacy and offer)?

He explains the interjection 'Ho!' in Isaiah 55 as God calling out to get attention, like saying 'Hey!' to a friend, to draw people to the waters of life.

Listen to the language of Isaiah 55. Ho! You know what the word ho is? You don't use it now.

39:46 - 39:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Wholeheartedly comply with the divine terms for obtaining the divine provision for sin: repent and believe.

Repentance is explained using the prodigal son's declaration, 'I will arise and go to my Father,' signifying a turning from sin unto God.

on which God offers his mercy to sinners. You must repent and as we saw several weeks ago in the Sunday evening service that simply means you must turn from your sin unto the God against whom you've sinned walking in the direction of doing your own thing thinking your own thoughts planning your own life living by your own standards living by your own standards God says in the gospel let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. Repentance is the prodigal saying I will arise and go to my Father. My friend that's what it means to repent.

43:23 - 44:07 Read in full sermon