Cited in sermons
A.N. Martin
12 sermons · All people cited
The Glorious Proverb
The Gospel can be stated with stunning brevity: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Expounding the 'faithful saying' of 1 Timothy 1:15, this sermon examines why the apostolic proverb is trustworthy and deserving of universal acceptance — rooting its reliability in the character of the God who speaks it and the Christ who performs it. The condescension of the eternal Son is explored with care, guarding against any notion that the omnipresent God vacated heaven to visit earth, while insisting that he genuinely assumed human nature for the redemption of sinners. The sermon closes with three applications: the sinner may rest on this saying because its foundation is the faithfulness of the triune God, the Incarnation should produce deep humility, and no degree of personal sin places a soul beyond the reach of Christ's saving power.
The Second Commandment - Deuteronomy 5:8-11
The Second Commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8-11) prohibits both the making of images to represent God and the worship of those images — two distinct but related offenses against the infinitely simple, spiritual, and incomprehensible God. Because God cannot be captured in creaturely form, any visible representation of Him, including pictures or films of the Lord Jesus Christ, violates the commandment: the hypostatic union cannot be depicted by an artist's rendering, and Christ is to be set forth through preaching, not imagery. The positive demand of the commandment is worship regulated strictly by divine command — the regulative principle — which restricts the church to the elements God has prescribed in Scripture, excluding both the inventions of men and the traditions of Rome.
The Theological Foundations of the Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper rests on a layered theological foundation that most communicants have never fully considered. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, this sermon traces six doctrinal streams — Scripture's divine inspiration, the perfections of God, the person of Christ, covenant theology, the substitutionary cross, and communion with God as a means of grace — showing how all of them converge in the ordinance. Transubstantiation is rejected on the grounds of Chalcedonian Christology, and the new covenant ratified in Christ's blood is anchored exegetically in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Hearers are called to approach the Lord's Table with an informed and joyful obedience, knowing that in this ordinance the risen Christ, by His Spirit, feeds and strengthens the faith of His people.
The Qualifications of Elders, Part 2
What does Scripture require of those who lead and teach the church? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this sermon works through the apostle Paul's qualifications for the elder-bishop-pastor office, arguing that these standards are not perfectionist ideals but demonstrated graces and virtues that the church must require of any man considered for gospel ministry. The qualifications are examined under four heads: the man's desire and its right motives, his personal conduct, his domestic faithfulness, and his testimony among outsiders, with particular attention given to the distinction between blamelessness and sinlessness, the meaning of 'husband of one wife,' and the danger of a Gnostic misreading of the prohibition on wine. The sermon closes with a call to churches to pursue both the edification of the saints and the evangelistic mission that God ordained through the office of pastor-teacher.
The Third Missionary Journey, Part 4
Acts 20:1–16 narrates Paul's closing movements on his third missionary journey — through Macedonia and Greece, into Troas where Eutychus falls to his death and is raised, and then south toward Jerusalem. The passage is used to argue that the early church's pattern of worship is not merely descriptive but carries prescriptive force: the Lord's Day (the first day of the week), corporate assembly, the Lord's Supper, and the preaching of God's Word are the God-ordained elements of Christian worship, regulated by Scripture alone. Cessationist and confessional commitments frame the reading throughout, and the sermon closes with a direct call to sinners to trust in Christ's imputed righteousness and atoning blood as the only ground of salvation.
The First Missionary Journey, Part 11
Acts 14:19–28 records the conclusion of Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey: Paul is stoned at Lystra, left for dead, rises and continues preaching, and the two apostles retrace their steps to strengthen the newly formed churches, appoint elders, and finally report to the sending church in Antioch of Syria. This exposition draws out three interlocking realities the journey illustrates — the inevitability of tribulation for God's people, the centrality of gospel proclamation and discipleship to the church's mission, and the sovereign power of God who confounds his enemies, sustains his servants, and saves sinners through the foolishness of preaching. The sermon presses listeners to measure their own commitment to Christ and his cause against the tenacity of those who opposed it, and to receive the appointment of faithful teaching elders as God's appointed means for the church's perseverance.
The Liberality of God and the Believer's Security
Romans 8:31–39 confronts the believer with a single overwhelming argument: because the Father did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for all the elect, He will most certainly freely give them everything else they need. The sermon works through three movements — the declaration of God's liberality in the gift of His Son, the implication that every lesser need is thereby guaranteed, and the application to the believer's unassailable security against accusation, condemnation, and separation. Drawing on the language of propitiation, penal substitution, and the Ordo Salutis, the exposition insists that the believer's confidence rests not on personal virtue or perseverance but on the justifying grace of God and the interceding, unchanging love of Christ.
2LCF Chapter 2 - Of God and of the Holy Trinity
The doctrine of God and the Holy Trinity, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 2, is approached here through three progressive affirmations drawn from Scripture and the Reformed confessional tradition: God is, God is one, and God is one in three persons. The incomprehensibility of God frames the entire study — not that He cannot be known, but that He cannot be exhaustively comprehended by any creaturely mind. Moving from general revelation through the law of nature to the biblical witness of monotheism and finally to the Trinitarian distinctions of unbegottenness, eternal generation, and eternal procession, the sermon demonstrates that the doctrine of the Trinity is not speculative theology but the very foundation of all communion with God and comfortable dependence upon Him.
The Second Commandment
The second commandment (Deuteronomy 5:8–10) distinguishes the object of worship, addressed by the first commandment, from the manner of worship — forbidding both the making and the worship of images as representations of God, including images of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sermon works through three considerations: the positive demand for regulated worship according to the regulative principle, the twofold prohibition against idol-making and idol-worship, and the reasons grounded in the jealousy of God and the covenant curse and blessing. The great need of the hour is not merely moral reform but the proclamation of the gospel so that sinners are turned from their idols to worship the living God in the way He has prescribed.
False Repentance and the Immutable God
The final section of 1 Samuel 15 (verses 24–35) exposes the anatomy of false repentance through the self-serving confession of King Saul, who admits sin while still deflecting blame and soliciting public honour. The study contrasts Saul's hollow words with David's unqualified confession in 2 Samuel 12, showing that genuine repentance owns sin without excuse, is directed Godward rather than reputation-ward, and issues in changed conduct rather than mercenary requests. Samuel's unyielding fidelity to the divine word sets the standard for prophetic and pastoral ministry. The chapter closes with the comfort of divine immutability: the God who tears the kingdom from Saul is the God who cannot lie or relent, and that unchangeableness is the believer's firm foundation.
The Comprehensiveness of Salvation
Jude 1–2 presents a compressed theology of salvation — the called, sanctified, and preserved — that serves as the launching pad for a full-orbed defense of the perseverance of the saints. Drawing on the golden chain of Romans 8:29–30, the new covenant promises of Jeremiah 31 and 32, the priestly intercession of Hebrews 7, and the doxology of 1 Peter 1:3–5, the sermon argues that perseverance is grounded not in the believer's own holiness but in the inviolable, triune work of God from election to glorification. The doctrine is presented under four heads — the perfect plan, promise, performance, and power of God — and applied as the only sure ground of soul comfort, soul-stirring doxology, and gospel-worthy conduct.
The Qualification for Elders
What does Scripture require of a man before he can lawfully serve as an elder in Christ's church? Working through 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this exposition first establishes five elements of a genuine call to the ministry — desire born of right motives, graces indicating genuine Christian experience, gifts indicating divine provision, providential opportunity, and recognition by the local church — before moving through the text's qualifications under five headings: personal holiness, domestic faithfulness, experience in the faith, testimony toward outsiders, and the one indispensable gift of being able to teach. Throughout, the point is pressed that these virtues are not merely a checklist for candidates but the standard of godliness every Christian man and woman ought to be pursuing.