Entering By the Narrow Gate, Part 7

The point: Repudiate from the heart the world as the molding influence upon your life.

The illustration of being 'married to a bewitching fascinating captivating woman strumpet called the world' emphasizes the deep, voluntary attachment people have to the world, which must be severed for conversion.

upon our lives. You and I are to that gate of a sound biblical conversion. Every one of us is found in a married condition. There are no singles at the gate.

15:18 - 15:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. Think of it. The whole world lieth in the evil one.

Several images are used to illustrate the world's captivity to the evil one: a stranded vessel embedded in sand, a lost sheep in a swamp, a sow wallowing in mire, and Samson in Delilah's lap. These convey the world's helpless, contented, and bewitched state under Satan's control.

Commentator, writing on this text, says, The world lies in the wicked one. The figure may suggest several different ideas. First, a stranded vessel lying embedded in the sand. You've all seen pictures of a tanker run aground on a sandbar, and it sinks into the sand.

34:01 - 34:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. Think of it. The whole world lieth in the evil one.

A commentator's quote describes the Fall as moving 'out of the arms of God, and into the embrace of the wicked one,' who provides a 'bed of his own prepared' for the fallen. This vividly portrays Satan's role as seducer, comforter, and guide, shaping the world's creed and constitution.

A sow contented to lie wallowing in the mire. A Samson lying bewitched in Delilah's lap. These are the images called forth, and they are all but too appropriate. Consider in its origin this lying of the world in the wicked one may be taken in a very literal and personal way, in a very literal sense, and listen carefully, this description has gripped me like few things have gripped me in recent days.

34:37 - 35:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Transitioning to the Sermon on the Mount, Martin demonstrates how Jesus' teachings necessitate repudiating the world. He first highlights the Beatitudes' emphasis on the kingdom…

The analogy of salt checking the putrefaction of meat (like a hamburger patty left in the sun) illustrates the preserving and separating role of believers in a corrupt world, emphasizing that they are not part of the world's decay.

My people are in this world what salt is in the presence of meat that would otherwise putrefy and become rancid. Bacterium multiplying first on the surface and then penetrating through the fibers like the hamburger patty. The eyes that someone forgot and left out in the hot August sun for three hours on the side of the grill. They've already begun to be slimy and covered with flies. Jesus said that's the world with its slime.

45:34 - 46:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin shows how the Sermon on the Mount's standard of righteousness, exceeding that of the Pharisees, demands an internal transformation. He illustrates this with Jesus'…

The comparison of Pharisees to 'whitewashed sepulchers' and scrubbing the outside of a cup highlights their external, superficial righteousness, contrasting it with the internal righteousness demanded by Christ's kingdom.

Chapter five, verse 19 and following. The subjects of his kingdom are marked as those who are concerned about the least of Christ's commandments. They are concerned that there be a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. They had only an external righteousness that kept the letter of the law at some points and other points kept their human traditions and even broke the letter as well as the spirit of the law.

49:28 - 49:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be overly concerned with your reputation before men, but rather with what you are in reality before God, as this will determine your eternal destiny.

The Pharisees are presented as an example of 'religious worldlings' whose spiritual disciplines (almsgiving, prayer, fasting) were fundamentally motivated by a desire for human reputation and acceptance, rather than God's glory.

You see, you're part of the world and segments of the world are religious. The Pharisees were worldlings, but religious worldlings. And being worldlings and being social beings, they desperately long to be accepted of one another. So they had their written and unwritten codes of mutual acceptance.

60:45 - 61:05 Read in full sermon