True Conversion: Rare and Difficult

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Jesus's command 'Enter ye in' announces the possibility of conversion, demonstrating God's desire for people to enter his kingdom, and that this command is…

Martin references John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' and the 'wicked gate' to illustrate the concept of the narrow gate and the difficulty of entry.

...incident that one speaks so often in his immortal pilgrim's progress...

7:51 - 7:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Jesus's command 'Enter ye in' announces the possibility of conversion, demonstrating God's desire for people to enter his kingdom, and that this command is…

Martin uses the analogy of a father calling his son, Joel, to supper to explain how a command conveys authority, welcome, and desire, illustrating Jesus's 'Enter ye in' command.

The possibility of something is to couch that possibility or that invitation in a command. When I get home with my children, the Lord willing, and I say...

8:48 - 9:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Contemplate the two gates and understand that choosing the narrow gate involves difficulties and demands, requiring adjustments that are not convenient.

Martin compares the narrow gate to a subway turnstile, where one must shed baggage (suitcases) to pass through, illustrating the difficulty of conversion and the need to lay aside hindrances.

In turn, the narrow gate is a narrow, a compressed picture of a small aperture, and if you're to pass through, you've got to put down all your baggage and strip off all of your winter parkas, and enter in with a minimum of possessions and a minimum of clothing. I think the closest thing we could have to it in our society is the subway turnstile. In fact, I've often wondered how a 300-pound man got through those things, because I found that just tipping the scales near 200, that I sometimes sort of have to squeeze in sideways. And if you've ever come up to one of those turnstiles, coming back p...

13:04 - 14:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Contemplate the two gates and understand that choosing the narrow gate involves difficulties and demands, requiring adjustments that are not convenient.

Building on the turnstile analogy, Martin describes a traveler with many bags choosing a wide door over a narrow turnstile for convenience, illustrating why many choose the 'wide gate' of spurious conversion.

you contemplate entering into my kingdom by the gate of true conversion, our Lord says at the outset, this is a difficult thing. It's difficult because that gate is a narrow one. It's a narrow one. And what makes it more difficult is that there stands over here a wide gate. One, when you face it, there's no problem. You can go sailing right through with all your baggage and any other accoutrements you've picked up along the way. And this is why, as people contemplate the two gates, he said many enter that gate because this one is so narrow. You take a man who's coming back home from a long tri...

14:21 - 15:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Contemplating entrance to Christ's kingdom requires an honest dealing with sin in general, not just its consequences, but the sin itself.

Martin uses the story of the rich young ruler to illustrate the necessity of dealing with a 'darling idol' or particular sin (covetousness) to enter the kingdom.

in particular, two examples suffice to show this. You have the classic example of the rich young ruler in the 19th, the young man came to the Lord Jesus, and there's every indication that he was in earnest. He came running, he came and he knelt before him, and then he cried out, good master, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? And we don't have time to go into why our Lord quoted to him the last six commandments.

20:23 - 20:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Identify and deal with your 'darling sin,' the particular idol of your bosom, which may not be known to others.

Martin uses Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman to further illustrate how Jesus exposes and deals with a person's particular, hidden sin (immorality) as a prerequisite for drinking the water of life.

The young man turned away sorrowfully. Our Lord did precisely the same thing with the Samaritan woman at the well. He finds the same intent in his dealings with her. He draws her into condemnation.

23:35 - 23:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Your one concern should be the Father who sees, walking in the fear of God and seeking His approval, not the approval of men.

Martin quotes Galatians 6:14, where Paul speaks of the world being crucified to him and him to the world, to illustrate the necessary severance from the world's favor and values for true conversion.

but again, when once you enter through, what did the Apostle Paul declare? God forbid that I should glorify the cross of Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me, and unto the world. The cross which became the means of his acceptance with God, became the cross which meant his severance with the world. He said, what does the world's favor mean to me?

29:38 - 30:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Your one concern should be the Father who sees, walking in the fear of God and seeking His approval, not the approval of men.

Martin explains Paul's metaphor of the world's attraction being like a cadaver on a cross, emphasizing the complete repulsion a converted person should feel towards worldly approval.

He said, it has as much attraction for me, as a cadaver hanging on a cross, and the buzzards kicking the flesh from the bone. He says, that's how much attraction the world holds for me. By that cross, the world is putrefied to me. That's why this man went through the then known world of slaves, with a holy passion for Christ, thrown in prisons, beaten, jailed, possessed of the spirit of Christ, that had drawn him into such identification with the will of Christ, till resistance of the world meant nothing to him. I'm sure none of us has attained to that degree, but I'm convinced the seeds of th...

30:20 - 31:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And before that gate within which it is planted the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and to have to see from the heart nothing nothing nothing in my hands I bring to thee to thy cross I bring that oh what a great leveler o…

Martin describes the cross planted before the narrow gate as a 'great leveler of human pride,' where all, regardless of background, must confess 'nothing in my hands I bring but my sin.'

And then it's narrow not only because there's the involvement in dealing with sin in general and our darling sins in particular in the world but also but dealing with self-life. And before that gate within which it is planted the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and to have to see from the heart nothing nothing nothing in my hands I bring to thee to thy cross I bring that oh what a great leveler of human pride is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see standing that woman cleanliness and immorality off of it living? And there you see that hair refined cultured educated well-bred and toget...

34:57 - 36:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Pastors, in setting forth the freeness of the gospel, must not fear to be scriptural and spiritual in also setting forth the narrow gate and the narrow way.

Martin tells the story of a marine recruiting sergeant who only highlights the glories of military service but omits the dangers and hardships, illustrating how some gospel presentations are dishonest by not presenting the full cost of discipleship.

standing around the local drugstore probably telling him all his dirty jokes and trying to pass the time and he thinks well I've got some good hunting ground and he goes over all dressed up of course in his marine blues and all the sharpness of it and he walks over with all the zip and spring that is so common when you send something of that esprit de corps of the marines and he engages the fellas in conversation he gets their ear and then he begins to talk to them about the glory of being a marine and he talks to them about what it's like to come home in your dressed blues and walk down your ...

41:59 - 43:27 Read in full sermon