Basic Lessons, Part 2

The point: In confessing sin, we must learn to trace our sin to its source and acknowledge the whole business.

Illustrates how cheating stems from coveting a grade or honor, showing that sin often has deeper roots than the immediate action.

You children, when you cheat in school, if you've fallen before that terrible sin of stealing your classmate's work. And stealing the fruit of his labors. Why do you? Well, first of all, it's because you covet either a place in the honor roll.

15:42 - 15:56 Read in full sermon

The point: If you're being tempted to lust because of what comes over your television, get rid of it if you can't discipline it.

Used as an example of a forbidden object that can lead to lust, urging believers to remove such temptations if they cannot discipline themselves.

Therefore, if you're being tempted to lust because of what comes over your television, it is no duty to watch television. And if you can't discipline your television set, get rid of it. Stop all that moaning and groaning and mourning and crocodile tears before God of wasted time and polluting of the mind, and you have to go back over the same thing every single week, and the constant source of it is an undisciplined TV? Face it. It's bigger than you are.

17:51 - 18:22 Read in full sermon

The point: If your occasion of stumbling is the literature on the newsstand, then don't go by the newsstand.

Illustrates how avoiding certain places (like a newsstand with tempting literature) is a practical step in mortifying sin by removing the presentation of forbidden objects.

And get rid of it. Now, it doesn't sound very spiritual, but that's true spirituality. That's tracing the sin back to its source. If you're seeing things that you need not see, if your occasion of stumbling is the literature on the newsstand, then don't go by the newsstand.

18:23 - 18:42 Read in full sermon

The point: If you find sitting down and browsing through a catalog leads to covetousness, tell them you don't want the catalogs anymore.

Used as an example for women struggling with covetousness, suggesting they cancel catalogs to remove the temptation of browsing and desiring forbidden objects.

That's what you need to do to keep the eyes from beholding forbidden objects. Some of you women, given over. It's a covetousness. You just write monkey words and seers and tell them you don't want the catalogs anymore.

18:49 - 19:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the thing upon which our disordered affections have been set, no sooner have we taken the thing that we think will bring us delight, when it turns into the occasion of the deepest misery and bitterness of soul.

Martin asks the listener to relive Achan's experience of hiding the garment and metals, showing how sin immediately creates fear, suspicion, and a need for deception.

He lays his hand upon the garment, and he knows if he goes out and makes his way back to the camp of Israel with his fellow soldiers, with the garment in full sight, all of his fellow soldiers will say, Achan, Achan, what is that you have? Oh, just a Babylonian's garment. Babylonian's garment? That's an accursed thing.

22:22 - 22:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the thing upon which our disordered affections have been set, no sooner have we taken the thing that we think will bring us delight, when it turns into the occasion of the deepest misery and bitterness of soul.

Achan's fellow soldiers, once buddies, become threats because he has something to hide, illustrating how sin isolates and breeds suspicion.

For the moment Achan laid hold of that garment and that gold and silver with an intention to keep them for himself, you know what happened? Every fellow soldier, instead of being a buddy, became a threat.

23:31 - 23:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: when a man starts making efforts to deceive and cover his sin, he becomes something less than a true man who's living with his face upward to God and outward to his fellow man.

Every visitor to Achan's tent becomes a threat, showing how hidden sin makes one recoil from social interaction and transparency.

Once home, every visitor to his door is a threat.

24:38 - 24:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: when a man starts making efforts to deceive and cover his sin, he becomes something less than a true man who's living with his face upward to God and outward to his fellow man.

Contrasts the joy and openness of parents sharing a legitimate child with the secrecy and shame of an unwed mother, illustrating how sin forces deception and cover-up.

Oh, what a lesson for us. When God gives us a gift, whether by special providence or by legitimate and normal means, we're able to say to all around us, come behold the wonderful works of God. Rejoice in God's gifts to me. It's like the parents who in a legitimate marriage have prayed and God is blessing them.

26:12 - 26:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if you think and regard your fellow Christians as a threat to you, or God as a threat to you, as this may indicate hidden sin.

Used as a classic commentary on how sin immediately leads to covering oneself from God and others.

Adam and Eve no sooner sin than they seek to cover themselves from each other with their fig leaves and from their God as they hide amongst the trees of the garden. David no sooner commits his sin with Bathsheba than he seeks to cover it by the blood of Uriah and by treachery and by all forms of ungodly activity that we would not believe were possible unless the word of God recorded them. Sin causes us to weave a cocoon in which we hide ourselves from God and from man. Let me ask you a very simple question today.

27:42 - 28:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if you think and regard your fellow Christians as a threat to you, or God as a threat to you, as this may indicate hidden sin.

Illustrates how David's sin led to a web of deception, treachery, and murder to cover it up, showing sin's escalating nature.

Adam and Eve no sooner sin than they seek to cover themselves from each other with their fig leaves and from their God as they hide amongst the trees of the garden. David no sooner commits his sin with Bathsheba than he seeks to cover it by the blood of Uriah and by treachery and by all forms of ungodly activity that we would not believe were possible unless the word of God recorded them. Sin causes us to weave a cocoon in which we hide ourselves from God and from man. Let me ask you a very simple question today.

27:42 - 28:22 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have problems with assurance of salvation, one of the fundamental problems may be your sin; deal with your 'Babylonish garment' rather than just seeking promises.

Suggests that some people avoid Christian hospitality because they fear others will discover their hidden sins, linking hidden sin to social isolation.

That's why some people never are given to Christian hospitality. They know if they had you in their home you'd find out what they really are. Achan doesn't want anybody in his tent. You might just get rooting around playing tic-tac-toe on the dirt floor and come across some metal.

29:38 - 29:52 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have problems with assurance of salvation, one of the fundamental problems may be your sin; deal with your 'Babylonish garment' rather than just seeking promises.

Martin dismisses the complaint that Christians in a certain place are unfriendly, suggesting the real problem is the individual's unwillingness to be transparent due to hidden sin.

It's amazing how many times chronic problems of assurance are rooted not always but many times rooted in the fact that there's a controversy with God. Why is it you've got a problem with your brethren? One of the biggest laughs that I get is when people will say well Christians at that place aren't friendly. Friends that's a cop out.

32:05 - 32:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Be sure your sin will find you out. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Martin imagines Achan's thoughts of remorse and regret as he faces judgment, emphasizing the irreversible nature of God's mandate once sin has run its course.

I've thought in meditating upon the passage, and I hinted at this this morning, if we could have been there to read Achan's thoughts on that day, what would they have been? As he stood there with his family and saw all of his material goods gathered together, brought to the valley of Achor, as he saw people going out and gathering the stones, boulders that would be thrown upon them, stones big enough to crush a man, small enough to be lifted, and mouthed after them, and then lifted up and hurled upon him and upon all of his possessions, as he saw his substance gathered, the stones gathered, as...

37:09 - 38:23 Read in full sermon