Basic Lessons, Part 1

Driving home: And the basic lesson of Achan's confession is to be found in the fact that it is a chronicle of the soul's ensnarement by sin and the ultimate destruction that sin brings to the soul thus ensnared.

Used to distinguish reflex sins from sins that arise from definite temptation, clarifying the type of sin being discussed in Achan's case.

We are not dealing now. We are dealing now with sins that are what we would call the reflex response of our corrupt nature. You stub your toe getting out of bed in the morning, and you mumble some words that do not bear repetition publicly or privately. Well, those are sins that we might call the reflex response of our indwelling corruption.

5:39 - 6:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He was not looking at them in faith. For to look at anything in faith is to view it through the eyes of divine revelation.

Martin reconstructs the scene of Jericho's fall, with Achan among the soldiers, to vividly portray how the forbidden objects came before his eyes in the course of obedience.

Go back and relive the situation. The walls of Jericho have fallen before the mighty power of God. Achan along with the other men of Israel is going up, each man before him, with the torch in one hand in order to burn and to plunder and perhaps a bag in the other in order to collect the gold, the silver and the precious metals to bring them back. For the treasury of God.

6:46 - 7:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What the mouth is to the state of the body, the eye is to the state of the soul. It is the inlet to the soul.

Compares the mouth's role in nourishing the body to the eye's role as the inlet to the soul, emphasizing the profound impact of what we see.

my soul, what your mouth and my mouth is to our bodies.

13:34 - 13:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Based on the eye as the inlet to the soul, Martin gives three exhortations: learn to discipline your eyes through prayer and spiritual rigor, cultivate eyes of faith that view all…

Recounts Solomon's warning to his son about the immoral woman to illustrate how to view forbidden objects (like her house) with the eye of faith, seeing them as they truly are (the house of death).

And all attack. Solomon underscored this with his son. He said, when you pass by the house of the immoral woman, and she says, here is a her. He says, no more.

18:12 - 18:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Based on the eye as the inlet to the soul, Martin gives three exhortations: learn to discipline your eyes through prayer and spiritual rigor, cultivate eyes of faith that view all…

Addresses the problem of inordinate eating in affluent societies, using the example of an extra piece of pie to demonstrate how to apply the 'eye of faith' to everyday temptations by seeing them as defiling or undermining usefulness.

I know some of you really wrestling with the problem that only affluent societies have. The problem of inordinate eating. My friend, here's the crux to the whole matter. Here's the crux.

20:07 - 20:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to train your children in the concept of disciplining their eyes and viewing everything as God looks upon it, especially in a media-saturated world.

Uses the example of a 'subtle attempt to bring the perspectives of the world into my living room' via an 'innocent movie' on TV to illustrate how to view worldly entertainment with the eye of faith.

And the TV guy says, look at me. I'm an innocent movie.

20:48 - 20:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to train your children in the concept of disciplining their eyes and viewing everything as God looks upon it, especially in a media-saturated world.

Quotes the children's ditty to emphasize the importance of training children to discipline their eyes and to be aware of God's watchful presence.

And I speak a word to parents. Seek to train your children in this concept. There's a little ditty that is sung so frequently and it's one of those that I think is well worth hanging on to. Be careful, little eyes.

21:23 - 21:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to train your children in the concept of disciplining their eyes and viewing everything as God looks upon it, especially in a media-saturated world.

Compares the relative insulation from visual stimuli in Paul and Solomon's day to the mass media of the present, arguing that if they warned so strongly then, how much more would they warn now, underscoring the need for eye discipline.

Be careful, little eyes. What you see. And we live in a day that Solomon didn't have to reckon with. We live in a day that Paul didn't have to reckon with.

21:51 - 22:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee to Christ, resting the weight of your sin-sick soul upon his perfect obedience and death, if God has given you a sight of your heart's sinfulness.

Illustrates Christ's sinlessness by imagining him as a child, never coveting a neighbor's toys or a position in a Christmas program, to show the perfect contentment of his heart.

could say of that one this is my son my beloved in whom I'm well pleased think of it think of it think this morning and this to me is just it just transcends the power of human reason and thought to grasp from the dawning of consciousness in that holy child Jesus not once when he saw the neighbors day after Christmas of course they had no Christmas I'm just using contemporary illustration when he saw them with more toys than he had never once did the fingers of his heart go out and say I want it perfect contentment with what God had allotted him never once when he was in school and someone els...

38:08 - 39:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for Christ to give you of his Spirit to be content with the Father's allotments and to take your undisciplined heart in hand, drawing it after himself.

Martin vividly portrays Achan's destruction, asking what pleasure his forbidden spoils bring him as the stones fall, and applies this to those who cling to sin, asking how they will evaluate their choices when God's judgment comes.

points that are in this matter from the presentation to the senses to the excitation of desire there was the commission of the act necessary to enjoy the forbidden object then there was the deception attempted in order to cover the sin but finally there was the awful destruction upon the sin and the sinner and some of you may not be here tonight God may snatch you out before we gather and I'm going to close God willing tonight with a note that is a sobering one if you could draw near to that scene when the rocks begin to fall begin to pummel down upon Akin and upon his family ask Akin Akin wha...

45:31 - 46:58 Read in full sermon