Presence and Pressure of the World

Driving home: The world is always, the world is always pulling in a direction that is exactly opposite to the will of God. Not just three degrees left or right of center, but the world is always pulling us in a direction that is the a…

Phillips' translation, 'Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold,' vividly illustrates the world's active, pressuring influence on believers, making the abstract concept of conformity concrete.

And you see, implied in all of this is that we will experience, prove, that is, work out in our own experience, put to the test in our own experience, the reality of the will of God only to the extent that we resist the molding, pressuring influence of the world. The world is always, the world is always pulling in a direction that is exactly opposite to the will of God. Not just three degrees left or right of center, but the world is always pulling us in a direction that is the antithesis, the opposite, diametrically opposed to the will of God. Phillips, in his paraphrase, which at some points...

12:51 - 13:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So that behind all of this activity of the world is the powerful, subtle, insidious, God-hating activity of the devil himself.

Martin uses the analogy of fishing to describe the class's collaborative effort in finding scripture, noting that sometimes unexpected but helpful verses (like a 'two-pound bass') are caught, even if not the primary target.

You fishermen know you don't catch everything with the first cast. Sometimes you pull up seed weeds. Sometimes you pull up a two-pound bass when you're trying to catch a four-pound, but it still makes good meat. Well, that's what happens in a class like this.

23:39 - 23:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: A significant section is dedicated to the practical application of guarding the 'inlets to the mind and soul' – the eyes and ears. Martin warns against the constant bombardment of…

Martin references a children's Sunday school song about guarding eyes and ears, using it to remind the class of a fundamental truth about protecting the soul from worldly influences, even if it feels like 'meddling' to apply it to adults.

Eyes and ears. Eyes and ears. The great inlets to the soul. Be careful, little eyes, what you see.

35:03 - 35:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: A significant section is dedicated to the practical application of guarding the 'inlets to the mind and soul' – the eyes and ears. Martin warns against the constant bombardment of…

The image of a jogger with a portable radio illustrates the pervasive, constant bombardment of worldly information, advice, or music into people's ears, even during exercise, highlighting the difficulty of escaping its influence.

Driving to church last Sunday. There's a little fella out jogging. What's he got over his head? He's got a little portable radio.

35:58 - 36:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not back off on your covenant to guard your eyes; when you cease to be shocked or horrified by worldly images, you've begun to succumb to the spirit of the world.

Martin contrasts Job's need to guard his eyes with the modern advertising industry, which is 'geared everything from selling shoelaces to radial tires to appeal to the lust of the flesh,' emphasizing the increased challenge for believers today.

And if Job needed to do this. When the only way he could look upon a maiden in a way that would produce lust was actually to see a maiden, how much more in our day where the whole advertising industry is geared everything from selling shoelaces to radial tires to appeal to the lust of the flesh and to have sin. All right. Well, often, you cannotиться all that is necessary to produce the greatest of you, nothing more that you actually expect of those who love yourself, and can get away with it. Do you know when you would receive such an extraordinary surprise? You glasses are the only way.

39:10 - 40:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Cry to God for the sensitizing of your conscience.

The analogy of two gunslingers in the Old West watching each other's eyes and gun hands illustrates John Owen's point that believers are safe as long as they recognize their spiritual enemies and actively fight them, but in danger if they become complacent or distracted.

You know, back in the days of the Old West, when the two guys were coming for a shootout, all right, they watched each other's eyes as they come strolling down, or streaked together. Each one's watching the other guy's eyes, and he's watching his gun hand. Now, as long as they stare at each other straight in the eye and watch for the slightest twitch of the gun hand, they're safe. But the minute they look off to admire the new saloon, they've had it.

43:07 - 43:33 Read in full sermon

The point: If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; exercise radical discipline in guarding against sin.

Martin uses the example of a church applying Proverbs 20:19 to someone with a gossiping tongue, where believers cut off unnecessary social contact, to illustrate how God might use such means to bring a person to repentance and guard others from sin through the ear gate.

We've got to exercise the strength, this discipline, Matthew chapter 5, if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, cast it from thee, better for thee to enter into life, main than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is never quenched. Also with the ears, I've been memorizing some very interesting verses in Proverbs, he that goeth about as a tail bearer revealeth secrets, therefore, company not with him that openeth wide his lips, that's a command, you get around people that gossip, by listening to their gossip you sin, and God says the way you avoid the si...

45:36 - 46:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Some of you may be selling your soul by attending executive parties or similar social events where compromise is expected; face that possibility.

Martin shares a personal story about his father refusing to attend executive parties where alcohol was central, even with ten children to feed, to illustrate standing firm against worldly pressure for advancement and entrusting provision to God.

You may not make your way up the ladder. I thank God. I had a. I had a father who said, take your ladder and throw it in the ocean.

54:51 - 54:58 Read in full sermon