What is the Straightened Way? Part 8

The point: Take seriously how frightening, dangerous, and desperate your condition is as a fallen, depraved, impotent, hell-deserving sinner, leading you to cry, 'What must I do to be saved?'

The mouth speaking from the abundance of the heart is likened to an echo chamber, illustrating how a heart impressed by sin's reality will cry out for salvation.

Lord. Amen. Many of you will remember the words of our Lord Jesus who said, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth, speaks. And since it is true that the mouth is the echo chamber of the heart, there is no heart of any man, any woman, any boy, or any girl that takes seriously what the Bible teaches concerning the reality of sin and its consequences, but that such a heart will force the mouth of the one who possesses it to cry, what must I do to be saved? The reason there are so few in our day who ask the question, what must I do to be saved? And ask it with any burning, earnestness is si...

5:06 - 6:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This sermon is part of a series addressing the second question, 'Are You For Real?' It returns to Matthew 7:13-14, emphasizing the inseparable link between the narrow gate…

Jesus, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, is compared to a good preacher pressing the claims of the kingdom, urging and inviting people to lay hold of its blessings.

Here, towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus, like any good preacher, having laid out, And having taught concerning the nature of the kingdom of grace he came to establish in the hearts and lives of his people, is now pressing the claims of that kingdom and of the king himself. He is bringing his sermon to a conclusion, urging and inviting and exhorting that man lay hold of the blessings of that kingdom and the salvation within it. And he does so with these words, enter in by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are...

11:26 - 12:49 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The fourth and final component of the restricted way is introduced: living in constant resistance to the world's efforts to seduce believers back to its governing passions…

A definition from Fairbairn's commentary on 1 John is quoted to provide a comprehensive understanding of 'the world' as fallen human nature shaping society.

It is that definition given by Fairbairn in his commentary on 1 John for the world. What is it? Fall in human nature, acting itself out in the human family. Molding and fashioning the framework of human society.

20:22 - 20:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember what the world is, not just grosser forms of sin, but the entire framework of human society rooted in enmity to God, and resist its efforts to seduce you.

Coming through the narrow gate is likened to taking off a wedding ring of allegiance to the world, formally divorcing oneself from it, and throwing the ring into the sea.

Why once we get through the narrow gate and by the secret but mighty work of the Spirit of God upon our hearts, making us into new creatures, we are enabled to take the ring... ...of a lifetime of marriage and allegiance to the world and formally divorce ourselves from the world and throw the ring into the depths of the sea.

22:59 - 23:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now that we've settled that, that this is a matter of life and death, now we're ready to ask the question, what then is the world?

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of life are called the 'world's trinity' by the Puritans and are likened to three main 'turbines' that drive the machinery of the world.

What is it to which the world would seduce me as its governing passions? John answers, for all that is in the world. The old Puritans called it, here's the world's trinity. The lust, the desires of the flesh and the lust, the desires of the eyes and the vain glory of life is not of the Father but is of the world.

33:50 - 34:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now that we've settled that, that this is a matter of life and death, now we're ready to ask the question, what then is the world?

The advertising industry is used as an example of how the world is driven by the lust of the flesh, often using sexual innuendo to sell products.

Whether God says, thou shalt not, is irrelevant. If my passions say, indulge me, let God's law stand in the way, let conscience stand in the way, let decency and what Paul says, even nature itself stand in the way, and the passions say, no, I shall be gratified in light of nature and law notwithstanding. That's the world's philosophy. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, inordinate or unwarranted indulgence in our God-given appetites, drunkenness, gluttony, immorality of every kind, and every other human passion and appetite rooted in the flesh. That's turbine number one that drive...

35:17 - 36:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh, mercifully, when God gave us new hearts and called us to repentance and faith and enabled us to come through that gate, we said, Lord, from henceforth, no longer is my life going to be run, driven by the three turbin…

The stories of Eve seeing the forbidden fruit and David seeing Bathsheba are used as biblical examples of how the eyes can be an inlet for destructive lust.

Do you remember he said of Eve in Genesis 3, when she saw, when she saw the fruit. If only she had closed her eyes, but her eyes became the inlet of the lust that destroyed her, the lust of the eyes. It is said of David, he arose off his bed at eventide, went out onto his porch to walk, and he saw, and he saw! It was the inlet to the eye.

37:03 - 37:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh, mercifully, when God gave us new hearts and called us to repentance and faith and enabled us to come through that gate, we said, Lord, from henceforth, no longer is my life going to be run, driven by the three turbin…

The modern economy is described as seeking to create an 'insatiable bottomless pit of desire for things' to keep the Gross National Product (GNP) going, illustrating the lust of the eyes.

He hadn't been fantasizing about someone other than his wife on his bed, but when he saw the lust of the eyes, the inordinate, immoderate, or unwarranted indulgence of desire to have things, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's donkey, his car, nor his wife, his spouse, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. The great turbine that drives the world, and alas, so much of our own present economy is seeking to create in everyone from the youngest infant to the oldest adult, to the youngest child, this insatiable bottomless pit of desire for things to keep the economy going. We may dominate the proces...

37:41 - 38:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh, mercifully, when God gave us new hearts and called us to repentance and faith and enabled us to come through that gate, we said, Lord, from henceforth, no longer is my life going to be run, driven by the three turbin…

Nebuchadnezzar's boast, 'This is my kingdom, which I have built,' is used as an example of the 'vain glory of life' and an atheistical attitude that robs God of glory.

It is the unwarranted boasting in our possessions, gifts, or privileges, and an atheist's and an atheistical attitude which fails to acknowledge that all is of God and through God and unto God, and robs him of glory. It's either boasting inwardly in what we have, or by ingratitude in the absence of thanksgiving and praise, assuming it's owed to us, or like Nebuchadnezzar, we got it by our own endeavors. This is my kingdom, which I have built. That's the vain glory of life.

38:54 - 39:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh, mercifully, when God gave us new hearts and called us to repentance and faith and enabled us to come through that gate, we said, Lord, from henceforth, no longer is my life going to be run, driven by the three turbin…

A football player crossing the goal line with an impudent look, claiming credit for his achievement, illustrates the 'vain glory of life'.

It's the fellow crossing the goal line, and with a look of impudence on his face, making it plain as he looks straight into the eye of the television camera that he knows will catch him crossing the goal line. Everything says, I did it by my wife. I did it by my clever juking of the half bass. I did it by my wife.

39:35 - 40:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Live by the desire to do the will of God, regulating all appetites, desires for things, and accomplishments by God's law and for His glory.

The constant arrival of catalogs like Service Merchandise is used to illustrate how images are flashed to create 'created need' and fuel the lust of the eyes.

The will of God will dictate what I do when the new service merchandise catalog comes every three weeks. I just have the money from one mailing. Most of us could retire with ease. Somebody's making bucks and somebody must feel that if they can only get the images into the eye, they'll get the customer into the store.

42:52 - 43:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Actively kill the instruments of spiritual seduction (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, vain glory of life) in constant dependence upon the Spirit and by crying to the Lord Jesus for increasing supplies of the Spirit.

Paul's analogy of an athlete in the Grecian games, exercising rigorous self-control to win a corruptible crown, is used to illustrate the discipline required for believers to win an incorruptible crown.

saved by direct revelation from heaven, brought into his initial Christian experience when God gives revelatory data to a man named Ananias, a man who has performed miracles, who has spoken the Word of God, who's been the instrument to give us written portions of the Word of God. How is this man's attitude to these things? Listen to him in 1 Corinthians, chapter 9. Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things.

48:42 - 49:18 Read in full sermon

The point: If flipping through sales catalogs is a stumbling block to the lust of the eyes, instruct your spouse to throw them away, unless you have prayerfully discerned a genuine need and are seeking to be a good steward.

An allusion to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the 'man in the iron cage,' is used to warn against abandoning oneself to lusts and risking eternal damnation.

Lest by any means, after I've preached to others, I myself should be ad documus, reprobate. Paul said, if I ever do as the man in the iron cage, lay my reins upon the neck of my lusts, leave off to watch and to pray and abandon myself to be driven by the turbines of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, vainglory of life, God in righteousness will have to send me to hell. You say, but pastor, wait a minute. He heard the voice of Christ on the Damascus road.

50:55 - 51:35 Read in full sermon

The point: If flipping through sales catalogs is a stumbling block to the lust of the eyes, instruct your spouse to throw them away, unless you have prayerfully discerned a genuine need and are seeking to be a good steward.

The world is graphically depicted as a 'whore' who 'bares her thigh,' 'shows her cleavage,' 'winks,' and 'blows her perfume' to seduce, warning against believing one is impervious to such temptations.

You see the difference? In one, you sit back thinking you are totally impervious to the lust of the eyes. And you let that old whore call the world bare her thigh. And you say, well, I'm just so grown up, I don't get seduced by a bare thigh.

54:33 - 54:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not trust in your own heart's ability to resist the world's seductions; acknowledge your vulnerability.

A hypothetical scenario of a man crossing the river of death is used to illustrate that no one regrets strictness in disciplining appetites, but many would regret playing the fool by indulging in worldliness.

And because I acknowledged that all that I had and all that I possessed was God's gracious gift and I refused to boast in anything save the cross of the Lord Jesus. You let a man just crossing the river be stopped if we could as the Lord's about to put him in the boat and cross and say, oh, wait a minute. Lord, can I hold him back for a few minutes and tell him, would you like to leave us a parting word of woe that you were so strict in disciplining your appetites of the flesh and the inlet of your eyes and the vain glory of life? Would you leave us a little word to warn us that such a life of...

55:50 - 56:43 Read in full sermon

The point: When conscious that the world is seducing you, say with the psalmist, 'Turn away!'

The idea of putting on scuba gear to find the 'ring' of allegiance to the world is used to illustrate the desire to return to worldliness, even if just to 'look at it'.

that's the fundamental posture of my heart. Though I grieve that my resolution at times is so weak, and though I mourn the fact that at times I'm caught on a way where's in my surprises, I've never once had a second thought about trying to go out and put on the scuba diving equipment and see if I can find the ring that attached me to the world. And just to look at it, I don't want to put it back on, just to look at it.

58:06 - 58:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second aspect of resistance is against the world's regulating perspectives: the temporal over the eternal, the external over the internal, the physical over the spiritual, and…

The character Passion from Pilgrim's Progress, who wants everything 'now,' is used to illustrate the world's temporal perspective.

not in their tent in which they happen to be dwelling right now.

61:13 - 61:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second aspect of resistance is against the world's regulating perspectives: the temporal over the eternal, the external over the internal, the physical over the spiritual, and…

Jesus' indictment of the Pharisees as 'white-clothed sepulchers' is used to illustrate the world's focus on external appearance over internal reality.

Pray to your Father who sees in secret. Give in your Father who sees in secret. Fast in your Father who sees in secret. Or take the indictment of the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 27.

62:24 - 62:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Constantly refocus the gaze of your soul on the realities of the eternal, be concerned with the state of the internal, prioritize the spiritual over the physical, and the heavenly over the earthly.

Bunyan's character the 'Muckraker' is used to illustrate those whose eyes are fixed on earthly things, seeing nothing beyond the 'bog of muck' of this world.

The world's regulating perspectives are the earthly as opposed to the heavenly. Philippians 3, 18. They mind earthly things. They are Bunyan's muckraker.

63:30 - 63:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Guard your heart above all things, valuing its spiritual state more than any material possession.

The state of one's heart is compared to heirloom jewels, arguing that a believer should guard their heart more carefully than precious physical possessions.

This is why Solomon says guard your heart above all things that you guard for out of it are the issues of life. To the child of God the state of his heart is an object worthy to be more carefully guarded than the heirloom jewels that are stuck away in a hidden compartment in the wall of your living room. You'd sooner have those jewels stolen than have a heart that gets cold to Christ and careless about sin and indifferent to the glory of God and the kingdom of God. I ask you, are you in the narrow road that leads to life?

65:05 - 65:47 Read in full sermon