Our Duty Declared & Danger Described

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces 1 Peter 5:5b-9, highlighting the stark contrast between God's benevolent care for His humble people and the malevolent intent of their adversary, the devil. He…

The suddenness of Peter's imperatives ('Be sober. Be watchful.') is likened to a thunder rumbling out of a blue sky, emphasizing their urgency and lack of transition from the preceding comforting promises.

And as we continue to cast all of our anxieties upon Him, He is continually and without ceasing caring for us. That's the one picture. But then, like a thunder rumbling out of a blue sky with a few puffy white clouds floating across that sky, Peter calls these believers to sobriety and wakefulness and active resistance in the light of the presence and activity of another powerful being. Peter calls these believers to sobriety and wakefulness and active resistance in the light of the presence and activity of another powerful being.

2:54 - 3:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But, the realization of those things is never to lead to spiritual sluggardliness. It's never to lead to carelessness.

The phrase 'girding up the loins of your mind' is explained as a figure of an oriental man tying up his robe with a sash to be ready for action, illustrating the need for mental preparedness and freedom from impediment.

We encountered it in 1 Peter 1, in verse 13. Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, a figure of an oriental man with his robe, and he ties up the loose ends around his middle with a sash, that he may be ready, to run and walk and work without impediment. Be sober. There's our word.

9:01 - 9:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Drunkenness brings delusions before stupor sets in. The hallucinations of spiritual drunkenness are not amusing pink elephants, but devouring monsters.

Martin quotes Edmund Clowney's commentary on 'be sober,' which defines it as being realistic and contrasts spiritual drunkenness (delusions, fantasies, hatreds) with sober reflection, highlighting the dangers of spiritual intoxication.

But here, Peter is saying that you are to be in total possession of all of your faculties in relationship to all the realities that are around you. Listen to one of the commentators, Edmund Clowney, as he calls him, he comments on this, to be sober is to be realistic. Drunkenness brings delusions before stupor sets in. The hallucinations of spiritual drunkenness are not amusing pink elephants, but devouring monsters.

10:58 - 11:31 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Drunkenness brings delusions before stupor sets in. The hallucinations of spiritual drunkenness are not amusing pink elephants, but devouring monsters.

To explain the difference between being sober and watchful, Martin uses the analogy of talking to someone whose eyes are open but who is daydreaming, showing that one can be awake but not intensely concentrating or observing.

In trying to show how these two things fit together, this may be a poor illustration, but it's the best I have. Have you ever sat talking to someone whose eyes were wide open, but you knew they weren't hearing a word you were saying? They had that long-ago-and-far-away look. They weren't sleeping, but they were doing what we call daydreaming.

13:06 - 13:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the devil's activity as 'a roaring lion walks about,' explaining that the lion's nature is ravenous, its roar signifies an imminent pounce for the kill, and its…

To explain the significance of a 'roaring lion,' Martin references several Old Testament passages (Judges 14:5, Psalm 22:12-13, Psalm 104:21, Amos 3:4) to demonstrate that a lion's roar is consistently associated with its intent to pounce and devour prey, not just to impress.

And then he adds, as a roaring lion. Your adversary, the devil, not just as a lion, that's the simile, but as a roaring lion. Now, what's the significance of roaring? Well, I didn't go to the local zoo or into the Bronx Zoo or down to Turtleback Zoo and ask if they had a lion amongst their more tame animals.

26:57 - 27:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The devil's intention is 'seeking whom he may devour,' meaning to 'gulp down' or 'swallow.' Martin traces this enmity back to Genesis 3:15, explaining that believers become marked…

Jesus' humorous and biting analogy from Matthew 23:24 about straining out a gnat and gulping down a camel is used to illustrate the literal, intense meaning of the verb 'devour' as 'swallow down' or 'ingest whole'.

the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking seeking another present tense constantly seeking whom he may an aorist infinitive whom he may call a gulp down and that particular form of the verb points to the fact that he is content with nothing less than getting you and me in his gut walking about constantly seeking whom he may devour not whom he may simply harass take his paw and leave some claw marks across the side of the face cut him and leave him with a few bruises no he is walking about constantly seeking whom he may devour now this word devour when it is used in the New Testament ther...

35:24 - 36:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Evaluate all activities, relationships, and entertainment by asking if they promote or detract from spiritual sobriety and concentrated spiritual alertness.

Martin shares a personal anecdote from a pastor's conference decades ago, where he described having his wife censor Time magazine for him to maintain spiritual sobriety, illustrating his commitment to avoiding anything that might dull his conscience or spiritual alertness, even if others found it 'weird' or 'extreme'.

I'm sober, stone-cold sober. You see, you may be laughed at when there are certain things you cannot do and maintain your spiritual sobriety and spiritual watchfulness, but who cares? I can remember people in a pastor's conference years ago when it came up, not a pastor's conference here, somewhere else where I was preaching, and we were dealing with the whole matter of keeping a pure mind, and I said that at that time, now we're talking about decades ago now, decades ago, when the standards of common grace were much more pervasive, and we had a subscription to Time magazine. I told these prea...

54:29 - 55:13 Read in full sermon