The Activity of the Devil

The point: Purge any misunderstanding concerning the major principles of the Christian life from your mind and experience.

The metaphor of a large key ring composed of the Old and New Testaments, with all the words of God hung on it, illustrates that there is no single 'master key' to living the Christian life, but rather a comprehensive set of divine instructions.

to the Christian life, will it lead to the master key, or not the master key, or not the master pressure unused to the life we are there for the life that we live now? To find Lord I want you to come fresher in the Lord, till I come without a time of 나서. of this key, we are told, you will unlock all of the basic problems of living the Christian life. But as we saw from many passages in both the Old and the New Testaments, God has given us a large key ring. That key ring is composed of the Old and the New Testament

2:28 - 2:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Be biblically realistic about the devil without showing sympathy for preoccupation with him.

Martin describes fringe charismatic groups that attribute every problem (irritation, lust, jealousy) to specific demons, leading to practices like 'vomiting sessions' to expel them, illustrating an unbiblical preoccupation with the devil.

And there are certain groups, what I would call fringe elements of certain charismatic groups that really are off the wall with their theology of the devil and demons. If you've got a problem with irritation, you've got an irritable demon. If you let them name the demon then you can vomit him out and they actually have vomiting sessions in their meetings. And now this is not caricature.

16:35 - 16:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He's not content to just nip at you. He's content with nothing less than leaving your bleached bones on some desert of a by-path meadow. That's what he's determined to do.

Martin quotes Bishop Leighton's commentary on 1 Peter 5:8, highlighting three aspects of the devil's activity toward believers: his strength (roaring lion), his diligence (goes about seeking), and his cruelty (seeking to devour/swallow up), to emphasize the seriousness of spiritual warfare.

Whether you like it or not, it's a fact. And Peter says, in the light of that fact, be sober. Be watchful for your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. And old Bishop Leighton in his classic commentary on 1 Peter, those of you, who've been blessed by reading John Brown, you will notice again and again, John Brown says, as the good old bishop has said on this passage, and John Brown gives you about one-third of Bishop Leighton in his commentary on 1 Peter, because he found him so helpful and he certainly was a perceptive commentator.

45:24 - 46:04 Read in full sermon