What is the Straightened Way? Part 3

The Sobering Reality of False Profession

0:05 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, August 28, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn with me in your Bibles, please, to the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and hear what, in my judgment, are some of the most sobering, even frightening words to be found anywhere in the Scriptures. We read in Romans 15 of the comfort and patience of the Scriptures, and surely

0:48 there are many Scriptures that drip comfort and consolation, but there are other portions of the Word of God that will cause every sober reader and listener to tremble if he takes them at face value. Such are the words I read in the Scriptures. I now read from Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23. Our Lord Jesus speaking says, Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,

1:31 but he that is doing the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many, many, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by your name, and by your name cast out demons, and by your name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, then will I profess unto them.

2:15 I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity. I say these words of Jesus just read in your hearing are some of the most startling and sobering and searching words to be found anywhere in the Scriptures. These words of our Lord emphatically assert, among several other things, that we are not iniquity, but that there are many, many, not a few, many, who having come within the orbit of the sound of the

2:58 gospel, and the name and knowledge of Jesus, there are many who name his name, who profess saving attachment to his person, and even perform manifold works in his name. I say to you, Lord, that there are many, many, not a few, many, who are utterly devoid of his saving grace. And if there were no other words in either the Old or the New Testaments

3:34 asserting such things as these, surely these words alone would justify, even demand, the series of sermons I have been preaching throughout this Sunday. I say to you, Lord, that there are many, many, many, not a few, many, not a few, many, I say to you, Lord, that there are many, many, many, not a few, many, not a few, many, not a few, many, not a few, many, are you for real? A series in which I have been seeking to bring the word of God to bear upon our professed attachment to Christ,

4:08 constantly insisting, constantly underscoring that the only way to address this question, am I for real, is to bring my professed faith in Christ to the objective standard of the word of Christ and to allow that word to be both judge and jury in determining our answer to the question, Am I for real? Now, in seeking to help us all to engage in a balanced, concentrated season of self-examination

Review of the Gate, Way, and Alternatives

4:52 on this most important of life's concerns, I have sought to bring you, as I have sought to bring myself, into close contact with those portions of the word of God which in a unique way enable us to take an honest look at where we are in the world. Where we are in the world. Where we are spiritually. We've looked at such passages as John 10, 26-28, Philippians 3 and verse 3, and Romans 8, verses 5-9, and for several Lord's Days, we've parked ourselves amidst the words of Jesus

5:32 in Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14, words that I have described as Jesus' urgent, invitation to men, his regal and gracious command to men to enter the kingdom of grace which he has been describing in the Sermon on the Mount. Here he says, Enter 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, restricted, pressured,

6:17 is the way that leads unto life, and few, and few are they that find it. And I want in a brief review to try to capture the thrust of what we have considered and then move on from there this morning and God willing morning and evening of next Lord's Day, hopefully to complete our study, but I am not making any pledges. I am far more concerned that we deal thoroughly and honestly with our never-dying souls than to complete a neat package and simply be done at a stated date. In this passage we have noted

7:01 that there is an inseparability between these three realities. Jesus connects the narrow gate and the compressed, or the restricted way and eternal life in an inseparable relationship. Jesus said it is only those who get through the gate and are found upon the way that will enter into life. And we must never separate what God has joined.

7:35 If we miss the narrow gate, if we are not found upon the restricted way, we cannot enter heaven unless Jesus Christ comes back from heaven and rewrites His own word.

7:56 It is the gate, way,

8:02 no gate, no way, no life. And then we noted that there is an irreversibility in these realities. Jesus said we must begin at the gate. None can be found upon the restricted way.

8:18 None can be found upon the restricted way. Unless they've come through the narrow gate. And all who pass through the narrow gate are found upon the restricted way. And all who are found upon that way will, without exception, enter into everlasting life.

8:39 And there is an irreversibility in these realities. We cannot live the life of the restricted way if we are stripped strangers to what it means to enter the narrow gate. And if we say that we have entered the narrow gate but are not found upon the restricted way, we are self-deceived. There is not only an inseparability in these three realities, there is an irreversibility to them.

9:10 But also, according to Jesus, there is a frightening but always inviting alternative. No sooner does Jesus say enter in by the narrow gate but that he highlights that ever-present inviting alternative. Wide is the gate. Broad is the way.

9:36 There is a wide gate always standing open before us. Always a broad way with lots of elbow room. No restriction. No constriction.

9:49 No pressure. But Jesus says it leads to destruction. It's the gate of cheap religion. It's the gate of pseudo-conversion.

10:03 It's the gate of tripping through with a knob to Christ and to the cross with no hard repentance. With no dealing with sin and self and the flesh-withing realities of the cross of Christ. It's the gate of religious profession with no...

10:22 without the vitals of saving religion. And it leads to a way, a pattern of life that is sprinkled with Christ and sprinkled with the cross and sprinkled with the Bible. But there's all kinds of elbow room. One can carry all kinds of baggage.

10:43 There is nothing restricting, nothing pressured about that broad way. And according to our Lord Jesus, everyone who gets serious, about the narrow gate and the restricted way will find the temptation of that other alternative constantly beckoning. Constantly beckoning. Constantly beckoning as a damning alternative.

Review of the Narrow Gate's Demands

11:11 Then as we focused our attention upon the gate, we identified the gate as a figure of speech. Jesus is using the image of a gate in order to set forth a new world. To set forth the truth of a sound biblical conversion. We will never begin to live the kind of life described in the Sermon on the Mount unless we are thoroughly converted.

11:38 Unless by the Spirit of God we are brought to true repentance and faith. And Jesus sets these things before us under the imagery of a narrow gate. And that's why it's distinguishing trait is its narrowness. There is difficulty in entering through it.

12:00 So much so that in the one parallel passage, Luke chapter 13 in verse 24, Jesus says, agonize to enter in by the narrow gate. And as we sought to open up from the scriptures the issues that must be dealt with at the gate, we saw from the Word of God that it's a narrowing of the narrow gate because we must renounce from the heart all righteousness of our own as the ground of our acceptance with God. The gate is narrow because it will not admit through its dimensions anyone who will bring

12:42 even a thread on his shoulder of his own righteousness.

12:49 Each one must take the posture of the publican who says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Of all confidence in ourselves, ourselves upon the mercy of God in Christ alone. And that's why the gate is a narrow one. Further, we must repudiate from the heart self-will and self-serving as the governing principle of life.

13:22 And that's why the gate is narrow. Many will have much religion so long as they can still worship at the footstool of the idol called self. But Jesus always made the first requisition of discipleship the repudiation of self. If any man wills to come after me, let him deny himself.

13:47 He must say no to self-serving and to self-will as the governing principle of life. And it's a narrow gate because thirdly, we must renounce from the heart the mastery and the practice of sin as the pattern of our lives. We must renounce from the heart both the mastery and the practice of sin as the pattern of our lives. In the language of the prophet, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let the wicked forsake and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God

14:31 for he will abundantly pardon. Who is abundantly pardoned? The sinner who renounces his ways, his thoughts. He repudiates the mastery and the practice of sin as the pattern of his life.

14:48 And fourthly, it's a narrow gate because we must repudiate from the heart our attachment to the world and the world as the molding influence upon our lives.

Defining the Straightened Way: Part 1 (Righteousness)

15:02 And I demonstrated in opening this up from the Sermon on the Mount passage after passage. We made four sweeps through the Sermon on the Mount and the leading emphases of that sermon to demonstrate that when Jesus said enter in by the narrow gate his hearers would have understood that these were the issues that had to be faced at the gate. And then the last Lord's Day I was with you we began to focus upon that narrow or restricted or compressed way. For our Lord says that we are not only to enter in by the narrow gate

15:46 but we are to be found upon the straightened or the compressed way that leads unto life. And in identifying the way I tried to set before you this simple principle that the way is in the language of Dr. Ferguson kingdom life in a fallen world. The way is the pattern of life in which the issues faced at the gate are worked out into all of life's particulars for the rest of our time in this world.

16:28 To state it perhaps in a way that will stick the way is an extension into every area of life for the extent of one's whole life the issues of life resolved at the narrow gate. That's what the restricted way is. An extension into every area of life for the extent of one's whole life. Of the issues of life resolved at the narrow gate.

17:08 And the distinguishing characteristic of this way and there I gave you a little Greek lesson. I don't often do it but it was crucial. The old English word straighten says nothing to us but the concept is that of a compressed, pressured, restricted way. And the form of the verb means it stands that way.

17:31 It has been constituted by God such a way and none can alter it and make it a broad and an easy a non-compressed non-pressured unrestricted way that has a name given by Jesus that's called the broad that leads to destruction. Easy going Christianity is hell creating Christianity.

18:03 And he has not retracted his words. And the distinguishing characteristic of the way is its compressed, pressured, restricted nature. The opposite of the broad way. And then in our communion meditation we had time just to focus then on the outworking of that principle.

18:25 If the way is the working out of the issues settled at the gate what's the first issue settled at the gate? There is a renouncing of all of our own righteousness. As the ground of our acceptance with God. Well what is the restricted way?

18:42 It is living in the faith that Christ crucified risen and interceding for me is the only ground of my acceptance with God all the way to heaven. That's the restricted way. It is the way in the language of the apostle of living by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It is the language of Philippians 3 where as a mature Christian the apostle says my great passion is this to be found not having a righteousness of my own

19:26 but the righteousness which is from God and in Christ and received by faith alone or in the language of Jesus in John 6. It is the one who eats present tense his flesh and present tense drinks his blood who has eternal life. Well then we come this morning to look at the second aspect of the way and remember the principle. The way is but an extension into all of life for the whole of life of the issues of life dealt with at the gate

Defining the Straightened Way: Part 2 (Self-Denial and Service)

20:09 and if the issue of righteousness has been dealt with and we are committed to living until our dying breath with our only confidence for acceptance before God founded upon and resting in Christ and Christ alone what is the second major aspect of the way? Well let's go back to the gate for at the gate there was the repudiation of sin self-will and self-serving as the governing principle of life. If any man will come after me let him deny himself. He died for all that they who live should no longer henceforth live

20:53 unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. Let the wicked forsake his way. What way? The way of self-will the way of self-serving.

21:08 And so what I want to do in this remaining time this morning is to give you first of all a description of this second major spiritual discipline of the compressed way secondly a demonstration of the biblical basis of that description and thirdly an explanation of why this discipline is part of the restrictive compressed character of the way. A description a demonstration an explanation. First of all then a description of the second major spiritual discipline of the compressed way. If the issue at the gate is

21:52 shall I rule my life or shall Christ rule my life and if that issue has been fundamentally settled if there has been a repudiation from the heart of self-will and self-serving as the governing principle of life then the second major characteristic of the way the compressed way is this it is living in the pattern of choosing to deny ourselves in order to please Christ and to serve others for the sake of Christ. Let me give it to you again.

22:37 It is living in the pattern of choosing to deny ourselves. To deny ourselves in order to please Christ and to serve others for the sake of Christ. Now let me explain the key words before I demonstrate from the scriptures that this is indeed what constitutes a major aspect of the narrow way. When I use the terms living in the pattern I am simply trying to express what the Bible needs by the use of way.

23:16 A man's way is not an individual deed here or there or a deed here and there and here and there with no necessary connection strung together in an arbitrary manner. A way is a pattern of life. A way is an overall drift and direction of life. Jesus is speaking about a compressed a restricted way and therefore to try to express that I've used the term living in the pattern an overall drift and bent of life not marked by perfection not marked by

24:00 uninterrupted consistency not marked by even occasional the absence of occasional lapses lapses into blatant expressions of self-will. When David the man after God's own heart looked upon Bathsheba and lusted and took her and lay with her and committed murder by proxy he was acting in self-will and self-serving but that was not the pattern of his life. It was a tragic and real contradiction of the overall pattern. So, in describing the narrow

24:45 the compressed the restricted way we are speaking of living in a certain pattern and the focus of that pattern is a choice to say no to our own inclinations our own feelings and our own appetites when they conflict with the revealed will of God. That's why I use the terminology living in the pattern of choosing to deny ourselves in order to please Christ and to serve others for the sake of Christ. The focus of this pattern is a choice to say no

25:28 to our own inclinations desires feelings and appetites when they conflict with the revealed will of God. Just as prior to the gate the pattern of our life was to say yes to our own inclinations yes to our own desires our own feelings and our own appetites even though in saying yes to them we had to violate the clearly revealed law of God whether as found in conscience or in the explicit statements of scripture the attitude of our heart was my passions my appetites what I want what makes me feel good what pleases me is more worthy of my allegiance

26:13 and obedience than the living God who has spoken in his word. Well we have repudiated that as the pattern of life at the gate and therefore the restricted way is a way in which we live in the pattern of saying no to our own inclinations and feelings. And then I've tried to capture the biblical teaching as to the motive. I've used this terminology it is living in the pattern of choosing to deny ourselves in order to please Christ and to serve others for the sake of Christ.

26:56 There is a two-fold motive in order to please the person who redeemed us in order to bring delight to the one who loved us and died for us and in order to serve others for his glory and for their salvation. Now that's a description of the second major element of the restricted way. It is living in the pattern of choosing to deny ourselves in order to please Christ and to serve others for the sake of Christ. Now, having given you a description

Call to Self-Examination and Warning Against Irritation

27:41 of this second major spiritual discipline of the restricted way now the heart of our study a demonstration of the biblical basis of this description.

27:55 And here may I pause to urge you please if you've already shut the windows of your mind and your heart saying I've had enough of this gate and this way business in God's name pretend to that attitude. The person most likely to be damned is the one who refuses to face the fact that he may be damned.

28:29 Upon returning home from our lovely vacation I thought I brought it with me into the pulpit but I left it in my satchel. I found a note that was in my satchel apparently left there before we went on vacation from one of the young couples expressing thanks for this series of messages and how God had ministered to them.

28:53 And two things were very significant in the letter. They said first of all as the word has been preached we have sought week by week to examine ourselves individually and together to see if indeed we are for real and we've never had a more certain conviction that by the grace of God we've come through the gate and we are on the way. That's the first thing they said. Second thing they said was this as we've sought to give our minds and hearts to the preaching we have found that God's God has brought us back to our first love to Christ and our hearts burned with love to him now like they did not before this ministry began.

29:38 Isn't it strange? Same sermons preached from the same pulpit by the same person in the same context and I know that there are some of you sitting here who have grown very irritated and resentful of this very spiritual text.

29:58 Isn't it strange?

30:02 Isn't it strange? No, it isn't strange because the scripture says to him that hath shall be given and from him who has not shall be taken away that which he seems to have. And I believe and it has been my prayer that this series of sermons would expose those who are mere formalists so that they'd say enough of religion I want a broader gate and a wider way it's out there but by the grace of God it won't be here it won't be here because it's not here the last day it won't be here it won't do

30:46 so would you plead with God to break down your own pride and stubbornness that would be self-destructive and remember that I'm seeking to set before you not my notions of how to get to heaven but a responsible exposition of Jesus' words which say you've got to get through a narrow gate walk upon a restricted way if you'd enter life and if you miss that gate in way turn it to this destruction let me then seek to demonstrate the biblical basis of this description and I confess

Biblical Demonstration: John 12 - Hating One's Life

31:31 I felt embarrassed with the riches of scripture as I labored to make a selection of three texts that would be the witnesses the first is John chapter 12 turn with me please to that passage and remember what we're seeking to do is to demonstrate that the restricted way the perfect way the pressured way that leads to life is living in a pattern of choosing to deny ourselves in order to please Christ and to serve others for the sake of Christ John chapter 12 verses 25 and 26 Jesus speaking says

32:15 he that loves his life loses it and he that hates his life in this world shall be and shall keep it unto life eternal if any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be if any man serve me him will the Father honor now the context of these words is Jesus' declaration under the figure of a grain of wheat that must first of all die before the world can bear fruit that he must procure the salvation

32:59 of his people by means of death but having asserted that he says the same principle that is operative in the procurement of our redemption is operative in our appropriation of that redeeming grace and he says in verse 25 in a universal principle he that is loving his life loses it what does he mean he that is loving his life am I not to have a proper sense of self preservation of course I am the sixth commandment thou shall do no murder as the shorter catechism

33:44 so accurately defines and describes its meaning involves doing all that we can to preserve our lives and the lives of others short of sin that's the justification you see for martyrdom I give my life up to death because it would be sin to deny Christ if that's the only alternative but to run from enemies is not sinful when Paul got word through his nephew that there was a plot to take his life he did all within his power to be delivered from that plot he was let down over a wall in a basket no no when Jesus said he that loves his life loses it he is not speaking about that aspect of the biblical truth he's talking about

34:29 the person who's committed to loving that life that is centered in self-pleasing and self-serving that's his life with his desires his notions his ambitions his appetites his passions his desires his life and he says he that loves that life loves it to the point that he will not repudiate self-will self-serving is the governing principle of life he ends up losing life and he notice present tense he that is hating his life in this world

35:12 he that as long as he is in this world takes a posture of hating his life shall keep it unto life eternal life eternal comes at the end for a man or a woman who has hated his life in this world I didn't write it I didn't say it Jesus did as surely as he affirms I cannot procure redemption unless I die you it's about redemption unless you die

35:56 in what sense by this living in a disposition of hating and that's that's not talking about a kind of monastic self-loathing and flagellating ourselves no it means that when self-will and self-centeredness would lead contrary to the will and purpose and word and law of Christ we are prepared to that life we are prepared to say no to that life and yes to Christ such a one Jesus says he keeps

36:40 his life unto life eternal now that that is the proper meaning is clearly indicated by the next verse Jesus summarizes all of that in this way if any man serve me let him follow me that's what serving Christ is you see the motivation that's why I put the words for the sake of Christ this is serving Christ and no man can serve two masters self is such a master Christ is such a master that they cannot both be served as supreme sovereigns

37:25 at the same time it is impossible and the way is a restricted way the way is a narrow and a compressed way because it is the way of continually in the language of Jesus hating in this world looking of our remaining on mortified selfhood that clamors for indulgence and obedience as the mortal enemy of Christ and of our own souls and we are determined to hate it that we might

38:10 keep that life which is life indeed even unrighteous unto life eternal and then as a clear example of the principle look at the next verses now is my soul troubled and what shall I say Jesus faces something that is very displeasing to him and it was a sense of holy displeasure this is a passage that has overtones of Gethsemane he is anticipating what awaits him now is my soul troubled and what shall I say the will of my father is going to lead me into that which goes contrary

38:54 to my desires to my deepest longings I do not want the father's clouded face I don't want the shame and the nakedness and the nails and the lictors lash in the spit my soul is troubled what shall I say one alternative is father save me from this hour deliver me from this hour what I face is not pleasant to me in anticipation shall I pray to be delivered from it but for this cause came I unto this hour glorify

39:39 thy name you see the Lord Jesus himself is the supreme example of this very principle though he had no sinful self to deny but he had there was in the struggle of his own holy soul an aversion to what he was to face as the grain of wheat that would fall into the ground and die he was to bear the unleashed fury of the wrath of God against the sins of his people and the thought of the father's face to him with terror was something more important to our Lord that his healing

40:24 even his whole feelings and it was the father's glory and the father's will and all whom he takes to heaven he takes having planted that principle in their souls by the power of the Holy Ghost and if it's not planted in your soul and being worked out you're not you're on the broad with bags but you've not repudiated as the governing principle

41:09 of your life for if you had then the pattern of your life would be one of choosing to deny self in order to please Christ and also to serve others for the sake of Christ this is why Paul could write as he did in Romans 15 with respect to the Lord Jesus giving himself to die it's a unique description but so appropriate to our study dealing with the matter of Christian liberty and the strong and the weak he says in verse two

41:53 let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good unto edifying for also please not himself please not himself but as it is written the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell upon thee our redemption was secured in the path of Jesus non pleasing and whenever it is applied with power by the spirit of

Biblical Demonstration: Romans 14 - Living Unto the Lord

42:38 God it brings us into the train of the son of God into a life in which we're prepared as a pattern of life to say no to ourselves and yes to him second text as part of the biblical demonstration of this principle of what is the restricted way just turn to Romans 14 back a chapter verses 7 to 9 for none of us lives to himself and none dies to himself whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die

43:23 unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord for to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord of both the dead and of the living again in the setting of dealing with the problem of what we would call things indifferent Christian liberty what should believers do in matters where the Bible does not condemn or command a given activity keeping a certain day eating certain foods drinking certain beverages and in the midst of dealing with that subject Paul's pastoral instruction and plea is based upon

44:07 this reality that is true of all real Christians and what is it verse 7 he says none lives or dies unto himself for none of us that is none of us who are true believers none of us who are truly united to Christ none of us lives to himself and none dies to himself if you are a Christian you don't live to yourself nor will you die to yourself that's true if you are a Christian it's not an exhortation none of us as the pattern of life is living to himself and none of us dies to himself verse 8 a second assertion

44:52 all of us live or die unto the Lord whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's now that's an assertion none of us lives or dies to himself all of us as Christians lives or dies unto the Lord and what is living but life in all of its particulars and what is living unto the Lord but having him as the focus his will his glory his law his word his precepts regulating directing governing

45:35 our lives then there's a third assertion that this condition is the realized end for which Christ died verse 9 for to this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord of both the dead and of the living and in the context when he says in verse 7 none of us as Christians lives to himself none of us as Christians dies to himself whether we live as Christians we live to the Lord whether we die as Christians we die to the Lord whether we Christians therefore live therefore or die we are the Lord's for to this end

46:20 Christ died and lived that he might be Lord of both the dead in the context of true believers and of the living so you see Paul is asserting that the very end for which Christ died was that he might establish a true Lordship over his people a Lordship that will be exercised through life and even in death itself he died to that end well if he died to that end and the scripture says he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied then there is no true believer of whom it cannot be said he lives unto the Lord

47:04 well you see if you are living unto the Lord you can't be living unto yourself because the two are mutually exclusive as a pattern of life he died Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 in the parallel passage he died for all that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again there is no middle ground you are either living unto yourself or unto him and crumbs you see not in the many areas we are doing what you would like to do and desire to do and doing what God says sort of naturally line up with one another

47:48 but crunch time comes when everything in you wants to think say feel do that which is opposed to what God has clearly revealed and now it's crunch time just as it's crunch time with a parent when you say to a hungry teenager you got a hollow leg time time to eat no big deal to get him out of his room and come to the table you've got to try to beat him out of the kitchen with a baseball bat for the last two hours what are you cooking mom and hand goes here and a hand goes there you see when all of the juices and appetites and hormones and all the rest in the

48:32 teenage boy are leading him into the kitchen or into the dining room to say time to eat come to the table it's no indication of his submission to his parents when his will coalesces with their command cut the grass he'd rather have his own fingers cut off an eighth of an inch at a time with a slicing machine than cut the grass he hates cutting the grass and he knows the Saturday morning cutting the grass is one of his chores and when his dad says son grass is dry needs to be cut time to cut the grass

49:17 now it's crunch time every every thing in the way that boy's put together but the father's will has been made known in his precept now it's crunch time whose will will hold sway and my friend it's just exactly the same thing within you and the living Christ there are lots of areas where by nature and training and upbringing and the influences of common grace your will may coalesce with the express will of Christ your motive will not be love to Christ your desire will not be the glory of God or not dealing with those issues but in terms of what you're

50:02 doing people would look at you and say well he's doing the quote Christian thing but oh my friend it's in the area right down to your deepest thoughts where no one can go but you and God no one but you the attitudes the dispositions of the heart where every passions and desires and interests and inclinations would take you this way and the word of God says that way the one who's on the restricted way is the one who lives a pattern of denying himself in order to serve

50:46 for to this end he died that he might be Lord none of us lives to himself none of us dies to himself the third text that I'll touch upon just briefly brings together the latter part of my description that it's not only a matter of choosing to deny myself for the sake of Christ but also to serve others for Christ's sake Philippians chapter 1 the third witness in demonstrating that the restricted way is indeed just the way that I have described

Biblical Demonstration: Philippians 1 - Living is Christ

51:27 you remember the setting of this letter Paul is in prison and some people have been emboldened by his imprisonment to preach the gospel with great or zeal and Paul rejoices some have good motives some have bad motives but Paul says Christ is preached and I'll rejoice and he's confident that in answer to the prayers of the Philippians and the supply of the spirit that his deepest yearning will be realized namely that Christ will be magnified in his body whether he lives or whether he dies verse 20 according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be put to shame

52:12 but that with all boldness is always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death now how does a man get to that place where he can say this is my earnest desire this is the great passion of my heart that Christ shall be magnified in my body that is in my redeemed humanity and the totality of what makes me me whether I continue to live or whether I die well he explains it in verse 21 he says for the reason I say this here it is for to me to live

52:56 and there is no to be verb in the original literally for to me to live dash and to die dash gave to me to live with the knowledge of Christ the will of Christ bringing glory to Christ this is my passion whether by life or death Christ be magnified in my body that's my great passion that I have this or be that in the estimation of the world in the estimation of others not that I attain this that or the other no

53:41 Christ is the great passion of my life I can just imagine that I was speaking to Pastor Blaze a week or so ago about this if this were transposed into 1994 and people in the media had heard about this guy the Apostle Paul who once had been a great hater of the church and now was its greatest evangelist and church planter and they arranged the various TV crews from NBC and CBS and ABC and they're going to have an interview to find out what makes this man tick and so they send those on their staff that are known to be the intellectual who are conversant in the great philosophical

54:25 patterns of thought over the centuries and they figure that they're really going to have a head stretching session as they meet with this great man who writes these profound letters and accomplishes such amazing things in the cause of what they would say the Christian faith or the cause of Christianity and so on a given day Paul agrees to meet with them and he's given leave to do so from the Roman authorities and there they are with their cameras grinding and there they are sitting with their notebooks ready to enter into all of this profound dialogue and they say now for starters Paul would you tell us what is your basic philosophy of life and Paul pauses and says well I think

55:10 I can give it to you in just a few words for to me to live and their mouths drop open and they say Paul would you expand upon that surely that's awfully simplistic I mean you have not even used any monosyllable words for to me to live Paul says no that's my introduction that's the body and that's the conclusion to me

55:54 to live to die gave you see when a man's heart is thoroughly permeated with the principles encountered at the gate life becomes in many ways relatively simple because when God arrested us he saw Tarsus and revealed his glory in the face of haste he cried out Lord what will you have me to do and that was his passion until his head dropped in a basket under the

56:38 executioner's sword mandated by the emperor Nero now notice he goes on to say but if to live in the flesh if this shall bring fruit from my work then what I shall choose I don't know I'm in a straight between the two I'm pressured between two desires I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is very far better he multiplies language that literally translate into English would be horrible English grammar

57:21 or better never again would he have to utter the lament of Romans 7 oh wretched man that I the good that I would I do not the evil that I would not that I do I find then that to me who would do good with me no longer would he have to utter that lament no more would he be thrown in prison no more treated like a criminal no more pilloried and beaten about even by some of his own converts like those at Corinth who said he's no true apostle

58:04 to be with Christ would be far better but he says to stay with you is more needful verse 24 now what will he choose look at verse 25 and having this confidence I know that I shall abide yea and abide with you all for your progress and joy in the faith here is self-denial at the pinnacle of a man's devotion to Christ he says to me to live is Christ therefore to die is pain I'll see him face to face as I saw him on the Damascus road I'll no longer see through a glass darkly I'll no longer struggle with

58:48 remaining sin I'll no longer have these Jews that follow me and hound me and oppose me and stir up the mobs wherever I go I'll be done with the pain and sickness and sorrow and grief to be with very better for me you Philippians you're vulnerable the Judaizers are swirling around the church he had warned them beware the dogs beware the evil workers beware the knife wielders he says for your sake it's needful that I shall abide and apparently God had given him some form of revelation that he was not yet to die that this imprisonment would not be

59:33 his final one that he would be released and be able yet to minister to the Philippians and he obviously chose the course that demanded self-denial self-denial self-denial self-denial for the good of others you see why it's a restricted way why it's a pressured way because in everything the issue of pleasing self is so ingrained that to choose to deny self for the sake of Christ and for the good of others for Christ's sake is very unnatural to our remaining sin

Why Self-Denial is a Restricted Way

60:17 well I trust these three witnesses have demonstrated that the restrictive way is not only the way of living by faith in Christ alone as the ground of our acceptance with God but that is also living a pattern of choosing to deny ourselves in order to please Christ and serve others for the sake of Christ having given you a description a demonstration now finally an explanation of why this discipline is part of the compressed or restricted or difficult way why should this be part of the way

61:02 that is we coined a word several weeks ago fleboized pressured difficult compressed why should it be well for the first reason is because remaining sin in us in the choices of saints has the disposition of an overindulged sin what's an overindulged spoiled brat remaining sin in the best of saints has the disposition of an overindulged what's an overindulged spoiled brat that's the little kid whose whims and moods and desires are lord of the house everything

61:46 and everybody's got to move and move immediately when the whims and moods and desires of the little brat are made known well that's what remaining sin is in you and in me like an overindulged that wants to be satisfied gratified here the grace of God has dethroned self as the governing principle of the soul remaining sin as it focuses upon self will and self serving and self interest is like the spoiled brat within that will

62:31 kick and throw its tantrums and throw its tantrums and throw its tantrums and throw its tantrums we must have the spirit wrought moral courage to say no and no and no sometimes a thousand times a day for most of us it begins when we say no to everything in us that would disincline us to go to pray and to read the word of God and to turn to something else rather than the disciplines that will bring heaven near and make Christ more precious and that's a reality you and i are going to live with till the end of our days

63:11 and that's why it's a restricted way and many can't hack it after a while they say i'm sick and tired of this business i'm weary of it i'm just going to give in all right give in and go to hell because it is a restricted way that leads to life you're saying someone can lose their salvation no but if you truly come through the gate and from the heart you've repudiated self-will and self-serving as the governing principle of your life the same holy spirit who brought you to that repudiation once and for all will enable you to maintain that disposition

63:54 as a pattern of life until you get to heaven second reason is this the reigning principle of this world system which would squeeze us into its mold is please yourself for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life please yourself back in the 50s there was a song enjoy yourself it's later than you think i tried to get the rest of the words my wife could only remember the first line as i could enjoy yourself it's later than you think

64:30 that's the spirit of the world you only go around near to the world and for us and i want to go through life pleasing christ saying no to self hating that life that is focused in self and loving that life which is focused in christ i tell you you're standing against the whole grain of the world and finally it's a narrow way not only because remaining sin

65:09 is a spoiled brat within the reigning principle of the world system is please yourself but in the most aggravating way of the world system is please yourself and i want to go through life way this is one of the dominant sins in american life in 1994 self-pleasing paul said in second timothy 3 2 describing those periods when there would be aggravated manifestations of patterns of sin men shall be and the first thing he mentions is lovers of self and he uses two it's a compound word that means self-lovers

65:51 that's what it says lovers of themselves and this is the generation that is made a religion of self-esteem self-expression self-actualization self-discovery self-everything it's a ubiquitous religion on every hand and now jesus stands in the midst of all of that saying anyone want to come in my train you got to say no to self that's starters and then for the continuing thing you got to take up the cross daily and follow me and you have as your responsibility no longer to live unto yourself but unto me the one who loved you and

66:35 died for you and in living for me you will be prepared to serve others for my sake for in as much as you did it unto the least of these my little ones you did it unto me my friends this is this is just absolutely out of my control and i want to go through life with you and i want to the orbit of the whole climate of the cultural mood of america in nineteen ninety four and yet jesus is not going to come back and all through that way that leads to life

67:11 because this nation has chosen to bow down for the gobbledygook and so the christian church i was who's worship that's so have so-called Christian self-esteem movements and Christian self-expression and Christian self-actualization. Why didn't anybody discover it by exegesis and exposition of the Bible?

67:46 Why have our greatest theologians and students of the Word and preachers over the years called to man shall lose it and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it.

The Compensating Joy of the Restricted Way

68:06 No, my friends, the way is still narrow. It's restricted. It's compressed. But thank God it leads to life.

68:18 And in the midst of it, there is the life of God in the soul, the secret fellowship and communion with Christ that more than compensates for the lingering screams of a mortified, spoiled brat within when he is denied what he wants.

68:39 The whispers of Christ in the ear of a selfish, self-denying saint are worth all the screaming and the hollering and the temper tantrums of remaining self.

68:52 May God grant that if you're in that way, you'll be determined as never before, Lord Jesus. I'm not going to look for the way to get any less compressed, any less pressured, any less narrow, Lord Jesus, so long as you are with me in that way and I know that that way leads to life. That's enough for me. And if you're not in that way, my friend, you must get through the gate.

69:18 And you'll never get through the gate until you unpack. And you won't unpack in your own strength. For a mighty Savior stands at the gate saying, come to me. And I'll do whatever must be done to get you through that gate.

69:34 And He'll strip you of your own righteousness. And He will, by His Spirit, take out the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And He'll change you from a lover and a wallower in your sin to one who will love righteousness and holiness and God and truth and uprightness. And He, by His grace, will enable you to kiss the world goodbye, take the wedding band off and throw it in the deepest sea and say from henceforth, I am Christ's and Christ alone.

Prayer and Final Exhortation

70:08 Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit. We thank You for the example of our Lord, Lord Jesus.

70:29 Thank You for the example of the great Apostle. And we pray that You would make of us as a company of professed disciples those who are determined to be found in that restricted way which alone leads to life. We pray for those who find themselves irritated by the preaching of these things. Lord, don't let them go on in their irritation.

70:59 Humble them. Show them their true state. Bring them to brokenness, we pray. We thank You for those who have borne witness to a renewal of love to Christ, a renewal of determination to deal radically with remaining sin.

71:17 Oh, may their number be increased many times over. We pray for those who profess no attachment to Your Son. May they hear His call, coming to their hearts this day. Enter in by the narrow gate.

71:33 May they cry to Him who alone is able to bring them through. Seal then Your Word with power. Minister to each of our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name.

71:49 Amen.