Self-Examination

The second message on unconditional election answers the four most common objections to the doctrine and traces its practical influence. The objections — it is not just, it is not fair, it kills personal concern and effort for salvation, and it makes evangelistic passion unnecessary — are answered primarily from Romans 9, with appeals to the life and labors of Christ, Paul, Whitefield, and Spurgeon. Pastor Martin concludes by showing that rightly received, the doctrine impels gratitude, engenders stability, constrains confidence, motivates faithfulness, humbles in the face of usefulness, and drives us to self-examination.

After nineteen Lord's Day mornings contemplating the person of Christ, Pastor Martin presses one searching question on every conscience: do you love him? Working through 1 Peter 1:8 and 1 Corinthians 16:22, he shows that love to Christ is an indispensable mark of Christian character and that its absence is the infallible indication of coming judgment. He defines the essence of that love (with help from Bishop Leighton) as goodwill toward Christ, delight in Christ, and desire for Christ, traces its roots to a saving revelation of his glory and a believing reception of him, and identifies its infallible fruit as keeping his commandments.

Pastor Martin opens the second negative of the Larger Catechism: the ground of justification is not anything wrought in us by the gracious work of the Spirit. He acknowledges that God always sanctifies whom He justifies, but insists that nothing of that internal work - new heart, new affections, repentance, growing holiness - forms any part of the legal ground of justification. The righteousness justifying us is a God-righteousness in Christ, external to us, received only by faith.

Returning to Psalm 1 after several months, Pastor Martin moves to the negative contrast of verse 4: 'The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.' He explains why the psalmist gives this contrast (God both draws with promises and drives with threats), defines 'the wicked' as anyone not fitting the description of verses 1-3, and unpacks the winnowing simile. Chaff represents fickleness (no stability), lifelessness (no vital relationship with God), and uselessness (fit for nothing but to be burned), in sharp contrast to the planted tree.

Pastor Martin expounds Psalm 1:5 -- 'Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.' He shows this conclusion flows from the fact that the wicked are like chaff. He examines the source of the psalmist's knowledge (divine revelation confirmed by conscience), the meaning of 'shall not stand' (not abide or endure, not merely appear), and the substance of the conclusion: the wicked will be crushed under divine judgment and excluded from the congregation of the righteous. He closes with the solemn prospect of judgment as a day of surprising discovery, fixed distinction, and final division.