Entering By the Narrow Gate, Part 8

Introduction: The Urgency of Entering the Narrow Gate and Repudiating the World

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, July 31st, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. As our Lord draws to a conclusion, this section of scripture that we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount is not content that his hearers merely know some of the leading features of the kingdom he has come to establish in the hearts of men. He is urgent that they actually enter that kingdom, and so he speaks in the imperative, Enter ye in by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many are they that enter in thereby, for narrow is the gate, and straightened, pressured, compressed, the way that leads unto life. And few are they that find it. And now over in the book of James, chapter 4, the letter of James, chapter 4.

1:39 After addressing, The internal friction and tensions arising from unmortified lust for things, James then calls these professing Christians spiritual adulteresses. Verse 4. You adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world, makes himself an enemy of God.

2:17 And now 1 John, chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. 1 John 2, 50.

2:28 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father, is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof.

3:04 But he that does the will of God, abides forever. According to these same scriptures, from which I have read in your hearing, it is possible for men and women, for children and young people as well, to be deceived concerning the most important issue of life, namely, whether or not they are truly in a state of grace. To be deceived on this most crucial issue, of all issues, whether or not one sins a pardon, and one is prepared to die and go to judgment, and to be welcomed into the presence of God. Since the scriptures mandate self-examination on this very issue, we have for seven successive Lord's Days been placing our profession of faith under the scrutiny, under the scrutiny of the Word of God, and asking the question, Am I for real? In common slang, Am I for real? And we are presently using Matthew 7, 13 and 14

4:29 as the basis and framework for assessing whether or not we are for real. For according to this passage, if we are for real, then we have God, by grace, come through the narrow gate and are upon the restricted or the pressured way which alone lead unto life. And as we have focused our attention on the narrow gate, we are expounding this image as a picture of the difficulties of a true biblical conversion and the difficulties of a true biblical conversion. And a genuine entrance into the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus was not at all embarrassed having come from heaven to die for sinners in order to secure the salvation which they could not in any way earn for themselves, yet it is Jesus who says, agonize to enter in by the narrow gate. For many will seek to enter and shall not be able, when once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door. So in the thinking of our Lord, there is no contradiction between a salvation procured by his own redemptive work

Repudiating Attachment to the World: A Scriptural Description and Call

5:56 and a salvation into which we enter by conscious spiritual agony. No contradiction in the mind of our blessed Lord. And if there is a contradiction in our thinking and in our experience, our thinking and our experience is defective, not the pronouncements of our blessed Lord. And as we have focused on the narrow gate and why it is narrow and why it is with difficulty that men enter, we have seen that it is because we must renounce from the heart all righteousness of our own as the basis of our acceptance with the Lord. We must take the posture of the publican of Luke 18. We must, in the language of Romans 10, submit to the righteousness of God. And the human heart so desirous to have something in which it can boast is loath to relinquish every last thread in its own imagined fabric of righteousness before God.

7:09 And therefore the gate is narrow and few find it. It is narrow because, secondly, we must repudiate from the heart all self-will and self-serving as the governing principle of life. Jesus continually made as the fundamental requirement of discipleship a deep, thorough, definitive renunciation of self. If any man will come after me, he must renounce, repudiate.

7:39 He must deny him, he must deny himself. Only then can he take up his cross and enter into a life of following Christ. And the very purpose for which he died, according to 2 Corinthians 5.15, is that those who receive life from his death should no longer henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.

8:09 But it's a narrow gate, and with great difficulty, men enter because, thirdly, we must renounce from the heart the mastery and the practice of sin as the pattern of our lives. And that renunciation must be made at the gate. Romans 6.16 is an epitomizing text.

8:30 Know ye not that to whom you present yourselves servants unto obedience, his servants you are, whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience, unto righteousness. And then this morning we took up the fourth and final element that is crucial and which must be reckoned with at the gate of a sound conversion, and it is this. We must repudiate from the heart our attachment to the world as the molding influence upon our lives. We must repudiate from the heart our attachment to the world as the molding influence upon our lives. And in addressing this aspect of our concern, I sought to accomplish but two things this morning. First of all, to set before you a scriptural description of what we mean by the world. And perhaps the best of those statements that I read in your hearing was the one which I now quote again.

9:42 The world, what is it? Fallen human nature acting itself out in the human family. Molding and fashioning the framework of human society in accordance with its own tendencies. What is the world?

10:04 Fallen human nature acting itself out in the human family. And we saw from the consideration of three pivotal texts that behind that system of fallen human nature acting itself out in human society is this personal devil himself called the God of this world. And John is bold enough to use the figure the whole world lies in the evil one. And then we sought secondly to establish the class, a clarion call to repudiate the world that is found in the context of Matthew 7, 13 and 14.

10:51 And we swept through the Sermon on the Mount looking at five categories of instruction in the Sermon on the Mount in which there is a clarion call to forsake the world if we would be part of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this evening what I hope to do is really point number three from this morning having set before you a biblical description of what the world is, having sought to demonstrate that there is a clarion call to forsake the world in the context of the command to enter the gate. Now thirdly, we take up the specific ways in which our attachment to the world must be repudiated as the molding influence upon our lives. What are the specific ways in which this that I called this morning suing out a divorce to this world that has been our spouse from birth? What will that involve in specific ways? Do the scriptures give us any light as to the specifics?

Three Specific Ways to Repudiate the World

12:08 And I hope to set before you tonight three categories of the Bible Bible's answer to that question. First, we must repudiate the world in its governing passions. Secondly, we must repudiate the world in its regulating perspectives. And thirdly, we must repudiate the world in its ensnaring companionships.

12:38 And the word of God is explicit on these points. And yet I do not in any way infer that this is an exhaustive treatment of the specific ways in which our attachment to the world must be repudiated as the molding influence upon our lives if we are indeed to enter the narrow gate. And if you say you've entered and the world has not been repudiated in these areas, you are self-deceived. That repudiation is fundamental and definitive in entering the gate.

13:20 And whatever struggles we may have with the world as we walk upon the restricted, the compressed way, they will never be the struggles of the world being found married to us or we to the world. For I remind you of Galatians 6.14, the cross by which our redemption is secured is the cross by which the world is crucified unto us and we unto the world. First then, we must repudiate the world in its governing passions.

Repudiating the World in its Governing Passions (1 John 2:15-17)

14:01 If the world by definition is fallen human nature acting itself out in the human family, if it is fallen human nature molding and fashioning the framework of society according to its own tendencies, we must ask what are the tendencies of the world? What are the molding influences of that society which is under the influence of the unregenerate and behind them the insidious influence of the devil, the devil himself? Well, the answer is given very succinctly in 1 John chapter 2 verses 15 to 17. Please turn there with me.

14:58 What are the governing passions? What are the engines that drive the wheels of the world as it moves through its course in any segment of human history? This passage answers the question.

15:15 It begins with an uncompromising command. Verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Do not love the world.

15:33 Do not set your heart upon that system of things that is framed by fallen humanity working out its own principles in society with its goals and its perspectives, its standards, all that grows out of it. Do not set your affections upon it. Do not love the world. Neither the things of or in the world.

16:05 He moves from this generic prohibition, love not the world, to the more specific, neither the things that are in the world. The specific things that characterize the world in operation, the world in motion, the world thinking, the world playing, the world acting, the world moving, the world in all of its various facets of what constitutes its life. Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world. That's the uncompromising command.

16:46 Then there is an unmistakable conclusion. If anything, if any man, member of Trinity Baptist Church, a deacon, an elder, if any man, respectable, loving father, loving husband, faithful to his wife, if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

17:15 If there has not been a fundamental, radical detachment from love of the world, John says, the love of the Father is not in us. While there may be some debate as to the precise meaning of the love of the Father being in us, this much is clear. John is saying, the root of the matter is not in you. You're not a real Christian.

17:41 The love of the Father is not in you. The Father's love that sent the Son to die for sinners, the Father's love that applies the virtue of the death of Christ with power to the human being, to the human heart, that love has never taken up residence in your heart. If it had, you would have come to the narrow gate where you would have sued out a bill of divorcement to the world and thrown the ring away, no longer to enter into a voluntary, fundamental attachment of love. Therefore, if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.

18:16 You've never come through the gate. That's not my conclusion. That's the Holy Ghost word through John the Apostle. Then he gives from the uncompromising command, the unmistakable conclusion, the comprehensive description, and this is where we want to park for a few minutes.

18:33 Lest we be left in the dark as to the things that are in the world, he then gives us a comprehensive description. Verse 16, For all that is in the world, what comprises the world as the world is this, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life is not of the Father but is of the world. As one old writer said, this is the world's trinity. Lust of the flesh and then the lust of the eyes, possessions, and then the vain glory of life, preferment. He said, this is the world's trinity and at that trinity it bows and it worships. The lust of the flesh, what is he referring to? Basically he is saying what makes the wheels of the world turn is the tremendous pressure of God-given appetites and desires innocent in themselves

19:57 but wrenched loose from lives in which God is the portion of those who are moved by these passions and lusts. God's law no longer regulates them. God's glory is no longer connected with their fulfillment and therefore they have become and end in themselves the gratification of physical and sensual passion, the lust of the flesh, leading then to gluttony, to uncleanness, to drunkenness and to the use of every God-given and noble faculty and appetite in a way that dishonors God and destroys the souls of those who so indulge themselves. The lust of the flesh and then the lust of the eyes and here the commentators differ but on this most seem to be agreed. Certainly central to the lust of the eyes since the lust of the flesh would take in sensuality probably focuses upon covetousness. The eye seeing and then the heart fastening itself upon what it sees and seeing it desires and again the God-given capacity

21:25 to appreciate things wrenched loose from God himself and God-given guidelines and a God-disciplined heart of self-restraint and moderation. The lust of the eyes becomes an all-dominating passion amongst worldlings. And then the vain glory of life. What is that?

21:51 It is the devil-like desire to rob God of glory and to heap praise upon oneself. Listen to one commentator's description of this. It is most perceptive. Speaking of the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life or the vain glory of life he writes The bodily appetites are in themselves absolutely wholesome.

22:21 Without them neither the race nor the individual could long exist nor can anything be more innocent than the pleasure that accompanies their legitimate satisfaction. Their degradation comes not from the body itself but from the soul. And it comes because life is not dominated by these nobler aims and affections under the rule of which the lower fulfill their appointed purpose in the harmony of nature. It is when the love of God the love of one's neighbor and the love of one's nobler self are shut out from the soul that natural appetite becomes the corrupt lust of the flesh asserting itself in sloth in temperance and sensuality or in the tyranny of the anxious thoughts. What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

23:16 Who is he but a brute whose flesh hath soul to suit whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play? He quotes I think it's Shakespeare But in truth when the higher nature is made the slave and minister of the lower animalism is no name for the level of degradation that is reached the animal body seeks only its natural food the lust of the flesh is in reality listen to this the hunger of the God-like soul deprived of its proper nutriment which is God itself and flying to the body for a substitute compelling it to devour so many more of the husks as will satisfy the starving prodigal within and make a swine's paradise for his comfort. That's what the lust of the flesh is. Man having been rinsed loose from finding his true portion in God turn the empty void of the soul and he becomes worse than a beast for the beast has no capacity to know God to fellowship with God he only has his instincts and his urges you and I have the capacity to know and fellowship with the God who made us but when we are in the world

24:44 cut loose from the knowledge of God and any desire after God and yet possessed with these appetites and with these capacities what do we do? we seek to fill all the yearning and the aching of those appetites with that which God never intended they should be fulfilled. Adam and Eve could enjoy all of the trees of the garden without once indulging in gluttony they could enjoy their marital intimacy without once indulging in excess or in that which Paul calls the passion of lust as the Gentiles who know not God they could indulge and drink in all the beauty their eyes could behold and could desire to explore that beauty without once being guilty of the lust of the eyes they could accomplish much with minds not tainted by sin and with bodies unplagued with physical infirmity and stand back and look at the fruit of their labors in conquering and exercising dominion not conquering but exercising dominion over the earth over the beasts over the fish of the sea and over all of creation without once wanting to share the glory of that accomplishment with the God whose power whose wisdom whose grace

26:12 was manifested in enabling them to accomplish but now the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life what is it? it must be regarded this same commentator says Mr. Law as both the egotistical and the atheistical attitude of mind the same human life the cravings of which in those that are not animated by the love of God and the pursuit of righteousness are the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes has for its least transient satisfaction nothing better than this deluded self-security and empty self-satisfaction against which all the facts of human experience offer in vain their unceasing protest to live without looking up to God in dependence and submission to live looking down on a larger or smaller number of one's fellow men this from which the spiritual point of view is the worst and deadliest life can give is in the world's reckoning its most enviable prize to be in a position where I can do something or be something that makes me look upon myself as superior to others that's the vain glory of life

27:39 and to accomplish something that gives me the attention of others and I suck that attention to myself that's the vain glory of life and its absolute moral folly for what have you that you did not receive and why do you glory as though you had not received it why were you made a man or a earthworm hanging on the hook of some fisherman trying to catch a large mouse bass tomorrow morning how stupid to be swelling with pride in our accomplishments to seek in what we are able to accomplish to place ourselves above another whatever we accomplish is of God and wherein we differ that we may accomplish more than another is also of God it is vain and what is it then that causes us this world to move in all of its intricate interactions John says all that is in the world is driven by the three pistons of the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and listen to what he says about these things and he says of these things that they are not of the Father but they are of the world these things have their origin

29:07 in fallen humanity and that world with its lust and passions so unregulated and cut loose from God is passing away and what's the antithesis of living that way according to the passage it is he that does the will of God abides forever that is though I am a creature with physical appetites and though I am a creature who has appetites and sensitivities that can be met through the function of my eyes and though I am a creature who can accomplish something and who has been given something and given a position in the will and purpose of God what is the difference in all of these things I have an eye the will of God with respect to how I shall indulge my physical appetites so that they are not lusts of the flesh but legitimate God given appetites whether I eat or drink I seek to do all to the glory of God that is I do them as regulated by the word of God and under the discipline of the spirit of God and unto the glory of God that's how I fulfill my physical appetites and what I see with my eyes and if there is desire I'm prepared to submit that desire

30:35 to the will of God as revealed in the word of God and a combination of principles will determine whether or not I should legitimately seek to purchase this obtain that what comes in through the eye is now brought under the discipline of the revealed will of God in holy scripture so that I am not living by the lust of the eyes and I am certainly not living by the pride of life while I work and labor and seek to be a steward of all that God has entrusted to me in the way of any gifts or capacities and while I must labor in my God appointed sphere to accomplish all I can my great desire is to say with the apostle whatever I have done it is not I but the grace of God working in me if you and I would enter the narrow gate this issue has to be faced there must be this repudiation from the heart of our attachment to the world as the molding influence upon our lives and that will mean specifically repudiating the world in its governing passions prepared to say I will no longer live a life regulated by the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes

Repudiating the World in its Regulating Perspectives (2 Corinthians 4, Psalm 17)

32:04 and the pride of life but coming the disposition of my heart is to be what we expressed in the hymn thy way not mine oh Lord however dark it be remember how Jesus closed the sermon on the mount whoever hears these words of mine and does them is the wise man whoever hears and does them not is the foolish man and the day of judgment will show whether we've built upon the solid foundation of a relationship to God in Christ that has bound us to his word as regulative of all of life whether we've been near hearers and have sucked out a promise here or there and have absolved ourselves but have never come to a true and genuine experience of the grace of God but another specific aspect of repudiating this attachment to the world is this we must not only repudiate the world in its governing passions we must repudiate the world in its regulating perspectives and what I'm attempting to capture with these words is this it is the fact that all men have a lifestyle regulated by a dominant perspective and in the world

33:33 that perspective is the temporal and the material in the kingdom of Christ it is the eternal and the immaterial in the world it is what can be seen and touched on earth in the kingdom of God it is what can be seen and anticipated by faith in heaven now let's turn to the scriptures to see how these perspectives are in no way perspectives that can be mingled you are fundamentally regulated by the perspectives of the world the world of sight of time and of sense the now for you are fundamentally regulated by the realm of spirit and faith and eternal values turn please to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 where the apostle Paul here confesses what his regulating perspectives are and they are not those of the world in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 beginning with verse 16 he says wherefore we do not faint though our outward man is decaying yet our inward man is being renewed day by day immediately we are introduced

35:01 to an outward man and inward man and which is more important to Paul is he more concerned with the quickening of grace in his heart or the fact that he's got a few grey hairs showing on his temple and he better run out and get a bottle of Grecian formula that's the issue he said yes the outward man is decaying shows itself in wrinkles and grey hairs but he said that's not my primary sphere of concern the inward man the soul the theatre of communion with Christ the theatre of cultivating conscious knowledge of God the inward man is being renewed day by day and then he says for our light affliction light affliction read 2nd Corinthians 11 2nd Corinthians 12 light affliction this man was beaten with rods this man was shipwrecked this man was stoned and I don't mean he blew his mind on drugs he had literal stones thrown on him it's a shame you can't even use bible language in our day or people wonder what you're talking about he blew his mind on drugs

36:29 he had stones thrown at him to try to kill him beaten imprisoned and he says light affliction and notice what he says about it which is for the moment for the moment it extended over decades light affliction over many many years and say it's only for a moment it's all a matter of perspective folks it's all a matter of perspective light affliction which is for the moment works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory while we look while the focus of our gaze is not at the things which are seen that is the things of this world they are seen they are touched they are out they are possessed they wear out they decay the things that can be seen he said that's not where the focus of the soul is fixed not on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen they are things they have substance

37:58 they are real they are not mirages they are not notions they are not ideas they are things that are not seen the fact that you cannot see them does not mean they are mirages phantoms they are things they are substantial realities the only difference is they are not seen God Christ glory heaven to come the father's dwelling place the many mansions the savior is preparing the company of the elect angels these things are real and we gaze upon them with the eyes of faith yes there is another set of things they are real yes they are very real when the lictors last came down my back and ripped open my skin and laid bare the very bones on my back and the sinews that was real but I don't look on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen for the things that are seen including my whippings my imprisonment my shipwrecks my stonings these things are what temporal they are bounded by time but the things

39:27 which are not seen are eternal now it's that that I've tried to capture in the words we must repudiate the world its regulating perspectives its regulating perspectives are what is seen what is temporal what can be touched and owned and possessed the things to which you can have a title the things in which you can live and drive and show to others he said no that's not the focus of my life but it is the things that are not seen the things that are eternal isn't that the very emphasis of the sermon on the mount what did Jesus say you come into my kingdom and I'll take care of the things that are seen the things that you need food and shelter and clothing seek first the kingdom of God and these things shall be added unto you but what is to be your fundamental perspective Matthew 6 19 do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth where moth and rust consume and thieves break through in steel but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth consume

40:55 and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also you see God is determined to get our hearts at the narrow gate as one old writer said the greatest and most difficult work is winning the heart to God and the most difficult work of the Christian life is keeping the heart with God he's out to get our hearts get through the narrow gate and I'll have your heart at the gate therefore you must repudiate your attachment to the world if that means anything it not only means repudiating those passions which regulate the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes the sight of life but those fundamental perspectives for where your treasure is there will your heart be and if your treasure is in the things that can be seen in the things of this temporal existence that's where your heart will be and God will never bring you through the gate without your heart so at the gate there is a repudiation of the perspective that is temporal and physical and earth bound and the heart is set upon and fixed in the direction of the eternal of the unseen of the inner man

42:22 as opposed to the outer man now if that's true are you for real? are you for real? what did you get at the gate? oh you say I took a little forgiveness from Jesus from his cross and took some of his blood to cleanse me my friend if that's all you've got you ain't for real if you and those were not divorced and you had a fundamental perspective has been radically I didn't say unchallenged undiminished at times at times almost buried no we'll deal with that when we talk about the way that is constricted the way that is pressured but if you've not fundamentally settled the issue this world and a holy it's an irreconcilable it's dissolved and if that's not true you you've not come through the gate and it's time you faced it

43:45 you think God will take you into heaven where you never get your heart there first never if God doesn't get your heart in heaven in conversion your person will never land in heaven at death or at the second coming settle it for where your treasure is there will your heart be and where your heart is that's where you're going to be forever and if your heart is with this world it's passing away and with it it's lost and what will it be when it passes away and passes into outer darkness and no longer is there some temporary pleasure in the indulgence of the lost and all you have is burning unmet desire in outer darkness forever and that will be your portion if the world has your heart and there's been no fundamental severing of that attachment not only must we repudiate the world in its governing passions repudiate the world in its regulating perspectives 2 Corinthians 4 Matthew 6 but I want you to look at one Old Testament passage that buttresses the same

45:13 perspective for where there was ever true religion in the Old or the New Testament this was true Hebrews 11 makes that so clear that the patriarchs were conscious that they were pilgrims and sojourners and they looked for a city that had foundations whose builder and maker was God but in Psalm 17 you have a beautiful contrast of perspectives David is praying that God will deal with his enemies for attacking him, compassing his steps seeking to cast them down to the earth he likens his enemies verse 12 to a lion greedy of his prey a young lion lurking in the secret places and he prays that God will deal with them now notice how he describes them in verse 14 from men of thy hand by thy hand O Lord from men of the world whose portion is in this life men of the world whose portion is in this life and whose belly you fill with your treasure God in common gives them all they could desire but listen what he gives them of things food and clothing and houses and lands

46:42 satisfies them because they are of this world whose belly you fill with your treasure they are satisfied with children and leave the rest of their substance to their babes that's how he describes the men of this world their portion is in this life they enjoy the good things of life and God showers those things upon them but this is the issue they are satisfied with these things but now for David verse 15 as for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with beholding thy form now this wasn't a man living in poverty and squalor no identity no sense of self-worth here was a man who had much of this world's goods here was a man of great prominence who had the adulation of thousands they sang their songs and danced when he returned from victory David has slain his ten thousands he had the commendation of God in this life there is no man like David a man after my own heart he says none of these things can satisfy me satisfaction will come

Repudiating the World in its Ensnaring Companionships (2 Corinthians 6, Psalm 119, Proverbs 13)

48:10 when I awake beholding thy form blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and to the one who has forsaken the world there is no promise more precious than to know that we shall be satisfied when we see him as he is and that's what getting through the narrow gate involves and I don't care what men may attempt to do to stretch the gate to push it up a bit and push it out some more it's still a narrow gate because to get through it one must repudiate that attachment to the world in its governing passions in its regulating perspectives and finally we must repudiate the world in its ensnaring companionship repudiate the world in its ensnaring companionship worldliness has its embodiment in worldly men and women David speaks of men of this world men who are shaped by the perspectives and by the goals and by the notions and standards

49:39 and ambitions of this world is that arch enemy of God who seeks to undermine all of God's ways and God's authority and God's laws and slanders God's character to men as he did to our first parents that he's mean spirited and narrow hearted he's a God unworthy of being obeyed and served well if we're to get through the narrow gate we must repudiate the world in its ensnaring companionship while we must love men and women of the world with a view to rescuing them out of the world we must not love them for what is in them of the world you follow what I'm saying while we must love them with a view to rescuing them out of the world we must not love them for what is in them of the world and where does the scripture tell us that well let's look at three clear texts 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14 and here I beg you kids and young people especially to hear me though all of us need to hear it there is no man or woman of any

51:06 age who does not feel the intimidation of peer pressure but it's peculiarly strong in our youth when we're trying to find our way and wonder if the whole world sees the zit on the end of our nose and whether the New York Times is going to make headline news about it tomorrow morning and in that insecure state trying to find out who we are and we're just convinced we've got the ugliest ears of anybody that ever lived or we've got the craziest shaped nose and why couldn't I have more flesh here and less there and oh how much we want to know we're accepted oh young people listen to me if you're going to get through the narrow gate it's narrow for you as it is for any adult and it's narrow particularly at this point of repudiating the world and its ensnaring companionships listen to 2 Corinthians 6 14 be not unequally yoked with unbelievers do not enter into any kind of a relationship that involves sharing the same perspectives pulling in the same direction the concept of a yoke is that it's an instrument placed over the shoulders of beasts that they might plow the same furrow at the same time in the same

52:34 direction for the same master do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers with men women boys and girls and teenagers of the world don't enter into relationships where the cart of standards for what you do and don't do on dates is determined by the lust of the flesh rather than the will of God who says flee fornication keep thyself pure be not a partaker of other men's sins don't enter into a yoke a relationship where the world's perspective about how you regard parents you call them the old man and the old lady and it's cool to despise them and sneak and lie behind their back don't enter into voluntary relationships with them that constitute an unequal yoke you say your yoke to Christ pulling in the direction of the law of God that says honor thy father and thy mother keep thyself pure in the direction that says thou shalt not bear false witness for you truth and honesty and honoring mom and dad and living a life of purity then you have options that's the will of God that's the will of Christ God says don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers and then he asks the series of questions what fellowship what koinonia what sharing have righteousness

54:03 and iniquity how can you take the oil of righteousness and the water of iniquity and mix them they don't what communion has light and darkness what concord what agreement has Christ with Belial the prince of the devil devils or demons what portion has a believer with an unbeliever what agreement has a temple of God with idols for you are a temple of the living God even as God said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people wherefore come ye out from among them notice come out from among them not just the abstract things of the world but the peoples are perpetrated come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing in the context no unclean thing in conjunction with them those who are abandoned to the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life those who give their minds to the foul defiling influence of the garbage that comes over MTV

55:31 the filth the pornography the hatred the blasphemy that comes over modern rock music and rappers so vile that a secular feminist had her book reviewed in the New York Times last Monday vilifying present popular music as being disgusting and vulgar and she's nothing approaching a Christian she's a person of the world who's even ready to vomit out her part of her own world it's become so base and to hear Christian young people justifying it well it's just not the music of your generation you don't like the beat or some other nonsense my friend dear young person here's the issue are you ready to walk into that school and when they're all gathering and talking about how they've listened to the latest hot shot rapper you stand there and say I don't know what you're talking about you're ready to be crowded out and ostracized for Christ's sake are you ready for Christ's sake when the girls are bragging about who and with whom they lost their virginity to walk away

56:58 with a sense of shame and when the guys are bragging in the locker room about who they made it with and how and laughing are you prepared to walk away let them call you a fag and a queer because you're determined to keep your virginity to your wedding night to a godly Christian woman are you ready for that teenage guys if not you don't want to get through the gate you don't want to get through bad enough because you've got to repudiate the world and its ensnaring companionship no unequal yoke that is no voluntary associations with the unconverted that are not imposed upon you by the will of God 1 Corinthians 7 says if God saves a husband and not a wife or a wife and not a husband the marriage bond is not to be dissolved by the Christian he is not to take the initiative if there is no infidelity who knows oh man whether thou shalt win thy wife who knows oh woman whether thou shalt win thy husband but with the exception of those kinds of relationships into which we are thrust by the commitments to our work the commitments to a certain classroom in a seating arrangement by the teacher I'm not talking like a stupid man of course there are some associations with worldlings that are imposed

58:25 upon us in the will of God I'm talking about voluntary associations associations that are taken up with delight because there is an affinity with those with whom you choose to associate the person who comes through the gate repudiates the world in its ensnaring companionships a passage in Psalm 119 our second passage listen to what the Psalmist declares and this is the declaration of everyone who's come through the narrow gate and repudiated the world and his attachment to it Psalm 119 verse 163 that's not the text that I want the text that I want I am a companion of all those that fear thee I have the wrong text I'm sorry but it's in Psalm 119 I am a companion of all those that fear you it is 63 not 163 but 63 thank you I am a companion of all them that fear you and of them that observe

59:52 your precepts when the Psalmist had a choice he latched on to those in whom it was evident the fear of God was the regulating perspective of life they wanted to live under the eye of God to please God to serve him and to honor him and they manifested it by a scrupulous adherence to his healed will in the scriptures I am a companion of all those who say they fear you no but of those who in their practice are seeking to keep the word of God I ask you who do you choose as your companions even in the orbit of the natural relations of this church do you gravitate to those that are most scrupulous about obeying the commandments of God or do you choose those that live marginally you know you can be together for two or three hours and conversation never comes naturally into what God's been teaching you in your devotions never does your conversation gravitate to the struggles with this sin or that sin oh no you never tell dirty jokes your wives and your husbands interact in a way that's perfectly sociably acceptable but the things of God are not naturally central

61:20 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks you can talk about your business or you can talk about the church you can talk about people that your conversation does not reflect a growing fear of God and a growing passion to keep his commandments David said I am a companion of those that fear you of them that observe your priests why because he had rejected the men of this world and their ensnaring companionship the final text proverbs 13 20 time is gone proverbs 13 and verse 20 walk with wise men and you shall be wise but the companion of fools shall smart for it walk with wise men and you will be wise when you have a choice you choose as your companions those that know God better than you do those that know the ways of God better than you do so that you might become like them because in them you see something reflected you see something reflected in them of the likeness to your savior and in so far as we are true to Christ

62:47 the world is not going to court us in so far as we are true to Christ Jesus said marvel not the world hates you it hated me before it hates you John says marvel not my brethren if the world hates you you see if you can be among worldlings and there's no sense of rejection either God is giving them unusual measures of common grace or you simply are not living consistently as a Christian or it may be you're really not a Christian and that's why they feel at home with you and you with them and I'm asking you are you for real are you for real the burden that I said at the beginning of this series that has gripped my heart is not that I have been made privy that there's white swapping going on that there are double dealings in our business transactions one with another no but there is an insidious creeping worldly spirit too many of you you ought to feel a chill when you go amongst a group of people who are members of this church and in a whole hour nothing is said of Christ and of the scriptures and what God

64:16 is teaching you through his word and in your experience as a parent or a grandparent as you're struggling with doing the will of God out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks the greatest burden I ever had in those days when I was in the traveling ministry in my relative youth for almost five years was to be kept in the homes of deacons and church leaders and evangelical churches all across various parts of our country and find that in a whole week I couldn't see the conversation come around to spiritual things once at the table what a grievous thing the things most real to my heart nobody was interested in and yet they said Christ was taking them to heaven a Christ whom they had their hat to twenty years ago and who I guess they thought they could tip their hat to with their dying breath and all would be well but I tell you this precious little evidence they ever came through the narrow gate and repudiated the world with its ensnaring companionships and were marked as those who truly belong to the Lord Jesus Christ I close

Conclusion: The Choice Between Friendship with the World and Friendship with God

65:42 by giving you the comments of John Stone on the passage in James we've not had time to turn to it but I've read it morning and evening and I hope the force of just the reading of it will remain with us you adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever would be the friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God listen to John Stone's comments as I bring the message to a conclusion no professing Christian perhaps would say to his own soul I'm minded to be a friend of the wicked world but many allow themselves to drift into a pattern of life which shows that such a spirit has been gaining strength the will which thus makes itself known James would have men candidly contemplate and bethink themselves what is its import and what will come of it one who wills to be a friend of the world thereby constitutes himself for this is the exact force of the word rendered in our version he constitutes himself an enemy of God if we balance profit and loss then what do we find without doubt the friendship of this world has attractions

67:09 strong attractions but of necessity because they are of this world death breaks them off utterly and even here the heart of the mortal man is not fully satisfied with them eating the world's bread the soul still hungers drinking from the world's fountain the soul still thirsts warming herself by the world's fire the soul still shudders with cold and to constitute oneself an enemy of God is to remain in spiritual death and to grow more fit daily for eternal death to be the king of the universe as our foe through life our foe in the day of judgment our foe forever and to choose this relationship to him while Christ is pleading with us in tones of tenderest love and pity to come to him to be his friends to sit down at his table as his sons and daughters to cast our burdens upon him and find rest for our souls you see the point of the author here is the choice will you choose to be the friend of the world and make yourself the enemy of God God's enemy in life in death

68:36 in judgment in eternity and the son of God who loved sinners and died for sinners beckons you saying come unto me what is made for the knowledge of God that can never be filled not matter how much you seek to fill it with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life as human hunger was never meant to be satisfied so the human soul in itș's aching void was never meant to be satisfied with the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life the things of this world are passing one who offers himself as the water of life and the bread of life he says if you come and drink of me the water that I give you shall become a fountain springing up into everlasting life ever satisfied yet ever thirsting but ever thirsting for that which more fully satisfies until in another world we'll drink and drink forever ever satisfied but ever increasing in our capacity to take in more of his glory more of his fellowship oh what a fool is the one who chooses to pause at the gate and say no my marriage partner of the world

70:05 is too precious to divorce her and to throw the ring away my friend you'll perish with her, God help you to divorce her in the name of Christ by the power of the cross of Christ and be married to him and begin to do the will of God and then know the fulfillment of the promise he that does the will of God abides forever let us pray our father we are conscious that once again we have addressed some of the most elementary issues of the soul's safety and well being in life in death and in the day of judgment and for all eternity amen we acknowledge that left to ourselves we will trifle away another exposure to weighty truth those who may sit here self deceived will find ways in which to hide in the caverns of their own deception yet deeper oh God in mercy, in mercy send the blinding light of your truth by the power of the Holy Ghost until there's nowhere to hide and bring people out

71:35 into the light of honest self-awareness and may they flee to you and enter through the narrow gate gracious God for those of us who by your grace have repudiated our attachment to the world we confess with shame how often we've allowed ourselves to be seduced into spiritual flirtations with that very one that we repudiated have mercy upon us oh God have mercy upon us make us a people who can say with the apostle we look not on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen gracious God we do not ask that we would not be so heavenly minded we're no earthly good for we know that's not our danger but we pray that we will not be so earthlyly earthly minded that we are of no heavenly good help us have mercy upon us may your word effect a sanctifying work in all of your people and a work of saving mercy in those who are not your own hear our cry bless those who will go on tomorrow to the conference protect them watch over them brood over that campus bless we pray Pastor McDiarmid

73:03 and Pastor Hendricks and Pastor Lush as they minister the word of God Lord come upon these men with power may the things they preach come home with great authority may there be marvelous visitations of your power throughout that entire week oh God we long to see you bearing your arm in this day of increasing worldliness and may you have a people who are truly heavenly minded whose treasure is in heaven whose hearts are wholly your own hear our cry and dismiss us with your blessing we plead in Jesus name Amen