Role of Faith in a Life of Holiness

Introduction and Review: Faith, Obedience, and Holiness

0:03 The following message was delivered on July 26, 1992, in the Adult Sunday School class of the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 By way of introduction and review, given the fact that this summer has been, as I've already intimated, an unusually full one in terms of both outside ministries for me and additional ministries in respect to five or six weddings, I have greatly welcomed these two Lord's Days in the month of July in which I have been privileged to have all three of the ministries allocated to me. And last Lord's Day, all three of those ministries, as those of you who are here will remember, I trust, were focused upon one basic theme, namely, the relationship between faith in Christ and a life of obedience to Christ. The fundamental premise which I sought to prove from the scriptures was this. All who truly believe in Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. All who truly believe in Christ will be marked by a lifestyle of obedience to Christ.

1:30 And throughout the day, I sought to open up the field of Christ. And throughout the day, I sought to open up the field of Christ. Related to that assertion, and then to examine a number of texts of scripture which both prove that premise, give the qualifying dimensions of the premise, and hopefully brought home some helpful pastoral perspectives on that commitment of the Word of God. Now, in the adult class this morning, I want us to take up another theme upon which, we shall concentrate throughout this day, in many ways, following a similar pattern for the structure of the three ministries of the Lord's Day, and even a parallel outline at many points in the development of the subject. Now, our subject for today is this. The relationship between faith in Christ and a life of holiness, or conformity, to the moral likeness of Christ.

2:38 Last week, we examined the theme, the relationship between faith in Christ and a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. Today, we take up the relationship between faith in Christ and a life of conformity to the moral likeness of Christ, or a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. or a lifestyle of obedience to Christ. lifestyle of holiness. And in the adult class this morning, we will do as we did last week with the previous subject, that is, I want to make an attempt to set this field of study in a clear and balanced framework before addressing the heart of the issue by preaching both in the morning and in the evening. And so in this class hour, I will be teaching, God helping me in the morning and evening, I will be preaching. So the issue we take up today is the relationship between saving faith in Christ and a life of conformity to the moral likeness

Urgent Necessity for Addressing the Issue: Difficulty in Balance

3:51 of Christ or a lifestyle of holiness. And as we take up our study this morning, let us begin where we began last Lord's Day by addressing the urgent issue. What is the urgent necessity for taking up this subject? Why should we give an entire day of the ministry of the Word of God to such a subject? Well, I want to set before you three compelling reasons for taking up this issue. What is the urgent necessity for addressing the issue? I answer, number one, because it is one of the most difficult biblical concerns to keep in proper balance. This subject is one of the most difficult biblical concerns to keep in a proper biblical balance. As Professor Murray has so accurately and

4:53 quaintly stated, the distance between truth and error is rarely a chasm. It is much more frequently a razor's edge. The distance between truth and error is rarely a chasm but is much more frequently a razor's edge and historically the people of God have not found it easy to locate that razor's edge, get on it and stay on it, with reference to this issue. The people of God have not found it easy to hold tenaciously on the one hand to a clear and vigorous grasp on the truth that though Christ alone in the perfection of His work is the ground of our acceptance before God, a life of holiness in its place is as necessary to salvation as is the work of Christ on our behalf. God's people have not found it easy to hold those truths with equal tenacity, to say on

6:20 the one hand, I hold with all of my heart to the truth that my acceptance with God is wholly gratuitous, it is all of God, all of grace, all of Christ, while holding with equal tenacity. Tenacity, this truth, I must be a holy man, I shall be a holy man, and if I'm not a holy man, I'll burn in hell, even though I loudly claim I'm clinging to Christ as my righteousness. Now, it's not been easy for God's people to hold those things. That comes out very quickly, even in the New Testament documents.

7:03 Take, for example, the book of Romans. Paul no sooner establishes the first truth. That our salvation is totally gratuitous, but he feels the necessity of raising this question in Romans 6.1.

7:17 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. But his emphasis on the totally gratuitous nature of salvation forced him to raise what seemed to be an inevitable.

7:39 And in escapably logical conclusion, if my salvation lies totally outside of me in terms of the grounds of my acceptance before God, and where sin abounds, grace super abounds, then surely let us continue in sin to magnify grace. So you see, the problem is not something that unfolds in the second and third century of church history. It unfolds while living apostles are writing, living epistles to living churches, or to think more broadly, the Holy Ghost included in the canon of scripture, that is, those books that are inspired of God, both the book of Galatians and the book of James. Why? Because while living apostles were guiding the thinking of the early church, there were those who wanted to undermine the totally gratuitous nature of salvation. And they would have added to the work of Christ, for our justification, circumcision, ceremonial laws, and Jewish rituals.

8:54 So the book of Galatians had to be written. However, while apostles were still living, there were those who said, yes, salvation is totally gratuitous, it is all of grace, it is all of faith, but they had a notion of faith in which it didn't change. The way they used their faith. They had something on their face, a vision in their face, and the way they told it.

9:16 They were all of that. They were all of it. The книge, if you know what it says, was part of a Jewish tradition, and that's how we do this book of Galatians, so it says, the Bible was founded by a man named Abraham. And according to the Bible, Abraham was the son of Abraham.

9:35 If you read it, you'll know that this was the son of Abraham, even though Abraham was the son of Abraham. So if you read it, you'll know that this was the son of Abraham. And so, James says that if any man among you seems to be religious and brideens not his tongue, this man's religion is what? They profess to have faith, and they said, we be the sons of Abraham, we be the sons and daughters dead. So you see, when I say there is an urgent necessity to address this issue growing out of the fact that it is one of the most difficult biblical concerns to keep in proper balance, I'm not setting up a case of my own. The case is right here in the documents of the New Testament. And from the New Testament era to this day, the church of Christ has been plagued with errors on this vital issue. And therefore, it is essential that we take it up and periodically address it with some degree of precision for our own spiritual safety. You see, every important

10:29 doctrine is basically, as one man of God said, our doctrinal formulations are nothing but hedges around a mystery. Hedges around a mystery. And trace every doctrine up far enough that it explodes in mystery. But our doctrinal formulations are the hedges or the fences to keep us within the bounds of biblical orthodoxy. The doctrine of the Trinity is a difficult doctrine to maintain in proper balance. To insist in the unity of the one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. There is but one God, the Father. Persist that within the mystery of the being of the one God, there are three subsistences. There is one who is the Father, who is not the Son nor the Spirit. One who is the Son, who is neither the Father nor the Spirit. One who is the Spirit, who is neither the

11:30 Son nor the Father. And yet there are not three gods but one. Great mystery. Difficult to hold that mystery. And so the church has continually tended to veer either to the One God or the other into a Unitarian concept of Monotheism, in which you really have simply modes of the One God, and it is called Modalism. You do not have three distinct persona or subsistences, and that's heretical. It undercuts every major doctrine of the Word of God. And some jealously concerned that they won't go into Modalism and into Unitarianism, has so stated the doctrine of the Unitarian Substance.

12:12 This doctrine of the three distinct subsistences is the doctrine of the Word of God. So, where does it lie in the Unitarianism and the Unitarianism? In what sense? In that sense, it's the supreme spirit and the submission to God. This is the only way that God can lead a nation into the world.

12:13 Without exception, the world is not a city. But, if all the human race will be on the road to the Kingdom of God, giftedness of the persona or the subsistences who are the Father, Son, and Spirit, they've ended up with tritheism. And so I say there's an urgent necessity for addressing this issue for, like the issue of the Trinity, the person of Christ, it is one of the most difficult biblical concerns to keep in proper balance of totally gratuitous salvation as to the ground of our acceptance, and yet a salvation in which a lifestyle of holiness is as necessary for heaven as the blood of Christ. That's reason number one. Reason number two, we must take up the subject because there is widespread confusion over perversion and denial of the biblical teaching on this subject in our day. There is widespread confusion over the subject because there is widespread confusion over perversion and denial of the biblical teaching on this subject in our day. And as I demonstrated last week from Titus 1-9, one

Urgent Necessity: Widespread Confusion and Denial

13:26 of the tasks of an elder is that he may exhort in the sound doctrine and that he may convict, that he may bring to the test and show the fallacy of error, that he may convict those who speak against the truth. Now, an elder's task is to do more than to be a polemicist and to speak against the truth, but it is his task. And if he fails to do it, then God gives him the frightening indictment given to the prophets in the days of Isaiah, they are dumb dogs who cannot bark. Pay a watchdog to bark at intruders, and if he licks them on the cheek, you're wasting all of your money in the budget for dog food. Now, apply that to me, and whatever you do to support me and keep food on my table and bread over my head and the car in my garage, you're wasting your money if I become a dumb dog who cannot bark. May God grant that that shall never be so. Let me put it this way to demonstrate that I'm not just again overstating it when I say there's widespread confusion over, perversion of, and denial of the biblical teaching on this subject in our day.

14:48 If the average evangelical were asked this question, we could go throughout this county this morning and call out a cross-section of the specimen of fairly well-instructed evangelicals from the many evangelical churches in the area, get them all together and say, now we want you to write down on a paper an answer to this question. Is it possible to be given an admittance to heaven when you die without the forgiveness of your sins? Without the forgiveness of sins through the blood and righteousness of Christ received by faith in this life? How do you think the average evangelical would answer that question? Is it possible for you to gain admission into heaven when you die without forgiveness of sins through the blood and righteousness of Christ received by faith in this life? Don't you agree with me? That 99% of the evangelicals would answer that correctly? They'd say it is not possible to enter heaven any other way.

16:00 There would be almost 100% agreement on the answer to that question and the answer would be biblically correct. But then if we said draw a line, put a big number two, here's the second question, of the same sampling of evangelicals and here's our question. Equally clear. Is it possible to be given admission to heaven when you die without the radical transformation of your character by the spirit of Christ in this present life,

16:39 making you a holy man or a holy woman before you die? . Consistent or biblical. .

16:57 of qualifications. Some would blatantly say no. Salvation is all of grace. Entrance into heaven is by Jesus' blood, period. Any holiness of life, purely a matter of rewards. Others would say, well, there'd have to be enough holiness to show that maybe your faith was real, but the degree of it is negotiable. There would be great confusion. But there shouldn't be confusion. You and every evangelical ought to be as clear and unshakable in your conviction about that second question and biblical in your answer as you are about the first, because the Bible is no less clear about the second than it is about the first.

17:44 But I say there is great confusion over this matter. Further, others would say, and I don't need to say it, but I say it, and they would say it, but I say it, and they would say it, and they would say it, and they would say it, and they would say it, and you I read this last week in rereading and reading again, or some for the first time, Dr. Charles Ryrie's book. Well, Pastor Martin, please explain to me, when you say a radical transformation of character, do you mean actual or just positional?

18:08 And they've come up with this terminology, positional holiness or sanctification, and actual and real sanctification. And by positional, they mean it is mental. It's a mirage. It's nothing that actually happens in anyone's real character, in a real place, in real time, and in real circumstances.

18:32 It's just a fancy way of saying we'll maintain lip service to the necessity of holiness, but because there's so many people who profess to be Christians who obviously aren't holy, in their actual lives where they actually live, we'll call it positional. I've never yet found a definition of the positional that's anything other than just notional. It floats by as a notion. And it has relationship to nothing real, in fact, and in human experience.

18:58 Others would say, well, no, the moral transformation is a matter of rewards. Others would come right out and say, if you insist that a man must have moral transformation to get to heaven, then you're teaching salvation by works. So you see, dear people, we must take up this subject because there's widespread confusion over perversion of and actual denial of the biblical teaching on the subject. But so long as my Bible says in Matthew 5, 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

19:35 That doesn't sound too positional to me. My heart and your heart is something that's there within you. It's not out there, positionally, somewhere, somehow, floating around, attached to nobody or nothing. Your heart is you!

19:52 And if your heart's not pure, you'll not see God, except in judgment. That's what Jesus said. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Hebrews 12, 14.

20:04 Follow after peace with all men and the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Now, dear people, can God talk in plainer language than that? How much more simply can God say it? Pursue holiness without which...

20:25 shall see the Lord. Why should there be confusion? Yet there is. So we must take up the subject.

Urgent Necessity: Critical Importance and Irreversible Consequences

20:33 Then there's a third reason why we must take up the subject. And I've already alluded to this. Not only because, as we have seen, there is in our day great confusion. Not only because, as we have seen, that there is a difficulty with the subject, but because of the critical importance of the subject.

20:56 You see, the issues at stake are eternally irreversible.

21:05 Now, a lot of mistakes you can make that are reversible. They are temporal mistakes, and they're reversible. You may buy a suit. You get home and say, really, it's a size too small.

21:18 I go back, take my sales slip, exchange it. Some mistakes are irreversible. You buy the suit. You have the tailor chop it up.

21:27 It still doesn't fit. Well, that's your problem. You've got to lose your box. It's irreversible.

21:33 But it's still only temporal. It's got to do with a rag. It either does or doesn't fit you. But some things are eternally irreversible.

21:44 And if you do not possess the holiness without which people don't get to heaven, that's an eternally irreversible state of folly. And if we tell people that they can go to heaven without the blood of Christ, we are telling them lies that have eternally irreversible consequences. And if we tell people they can go to heaven by the blood of Christ, while they're not sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, we'll tell them lies that are eternally irreversible in their consequences. So, dear people, this is not lightweight stuff.

22:28 This is not a discussion on an important question such as, one of you raised, and we hope to address in due course, what biblical grounds are there for musical accompaniment in the worship of God. That's an important question if you believe the regulative principle. We bring nothing to God in our worship but what He has warranted. And one of the saints raised that question in the recent opportunity for questions and answers.

22:54 That's an important question. But the results are not eternally irreversible. If we're not straight on whether or not, unholy people go to heaven or hell, we're in a very serious arena of truth and of error.

23:17 And therefore, both in our own spiritual safety and in our communication of the gospel to others, we're dealing with a subject of critical importance with eternally irreversible consequences. And therefore, we need to address it. Well, have I persuaded your conscience? That we are not going to be engaged today in a little kind of play tempest in a theological teapot when we take up the subject, the relationship between faith in Christ and a life of conformity to Christ, or the relationship between faith and a lifestyle of holiness. All right? Having laid before you the urgent necessity for addressing the issue, secondly, what is the precise identity of the issue? Roman numeral two.

Precise Identity of the Issue: What it is NOT

24:15 I gave you A, B, and C regarding the urgent necessity for addressing the issue. Now, Roman numeral two. What is the precise identity of the issue? And following the outline of last week,

24:33 if you've got a wing that works and you want to build another plane, don't rediscover the wing. All right? So I found the outline helpful. A number of you said, you did.

24:42 So it's not laziness, but just economy of time. And I hope a little good horse sense stick with a good thing. All right? And if you can come up with something better and help me for the next time, fine.

24:52 But for now, this is what we're going to do. What is the precise identity of the issue? Negative. It is not a question relative to the sole ground of the sinner's acceptance as righteous before God.

25:08 We are not dealing with the question of the, the sole ground of a sinner's acceptance as righteous before God. That sole ground, I give you three familiar texts, is very clearly identified in the word of God. First Corinthians chapter one and verse 30. But of him, that is by God's operation and working, but of him are ye in, that is in union with Christ Jesus, who was, who is made unto us Christ himself Christ alone who is made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord and no comma leading to something else. No dash awaiting something. Else no number with a footnote adding something else.

26:20 Christ is made unto us righteousness. Therefore we glory only in the Lord. Our righteousness. So the question before us is not a question relative to the sole ground of the sinner's acceptance as righteous before God.

26:41 That ground is Christ himself. Christ alone Christ plus nothing not even what Christ works in us by his grace from the moment he saves us until he glorifies his work in us is never any part of the ground of his acceptance of us. And if some of you could get hold of that you bust a hole in the ceiling you haven't yet got hold of it. And if by the grace.

27:15 Of God you could either your shouts would split the boards or you'd go into orbit Christ work in us forms no part of the ground of God's acceptance of us it is Christ himself Christ alone Christ plus nothing second text that makes this so clear second Corinthians five twenty one second Corinthians five twenty one in this marvelous section on the Christian ministry. Paul says him that is Christ who knew no sin that is in terms of personal defilement personal commission of sin personal culpability for his own sin Christ knew no sin yet he was made by God to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God.

28:24 In him all the righteousness that God is ever provided or ever will provide that makes it accepted before him he has deposited in his son and if we have it in Christ there's nothing to be had anywhere else outside of Christ including ourselves it's not a question of the soul ground of the sinner's acceptance is righteous before God. In him. In the interest of time I just give you the third reference Philippians three eight that I may be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of faith the righteousness which is of God by faith and in Christ alone secondly the precise identity of this issue as we wrestle with faith in Christ and conformity to Christ or faith in Christ and the lifestyle of holiness it is not.

29:25 Secondly under the negative it is not a question of whether true Christians continue to sin on that the Bible is very clear Jesus assumed when he said after this manner pray ye Matthew six our father who art in the heavens hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses. Even as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one and then the one petition he enlarges upon is the one that deals with the reality of the daily sins of the people of God for if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly father forgive yours now among all of that there's some rich theology not the least of which is this Jesus assumes his praying community of the father's sons and daughters.

30:26 As a sinning community that will daily need to pray for the pardon of their own sins they will need to seek forgiveness for each other's sins against one another now if anything could be clear I don't know how it could be made more clear than that the community of the people of God are a sinning community and first John one eight to ten states in unequivocal language if any man says he has not sinned he's reached the point from which he has sinned. He's a liar and the truth is not in him if we say we have no sin his word is not in us so that's not the question thirdly it is not a question hear me carefully now it is not a question of whether true Christians can and do fall into horrible and grievous sins that's not the question when we say that there is a necessary relationship between faith in Christ and a lifestyle of holiness.

31:27 Faith in Christ and conformity to the moral likeness of Christ we are not denying that true Christians can and do fall into horrible and grievous sins the devil did not inspire second Samuel chapter eleven that's the chapter that speaks of David's lust David's sending David's committing adultery David's murder David's hypocrisy the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost dares to expose his own work of salvation to dark chapters such as David said the Holy Ghost inspires the record of Peter's taking oaths and saying I know not the man denying his Lord drawing back in religious and cultural racism refusing to eat socially with the Gentiles Galatians chapter two the Holy Ghost is

32:31 recorded the sins of the Corinthians no this is not a question of whether true Christians can and do fall into horrible and grievous sins and fourthly under the negative it is not a question of whether a true Christian can fall out of the state of grace that's not the question we believe the Bible is clear that no one in whom almighty God begins a true work of grace will ever defect and fall out of the state of grace. But the scripture says Philippians 1 6 confident of this thing that he who has done a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Romans 8 29 and 30 whom he did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son moreover whom he did foreknow then he also called whom he called every one of them then he also justified

Precise Identity of the Issue: Can a Justified Sinner Remain Morally Unchanged?

33:31 whom he justified then he also glorified no sinner was ever called who wasn't justified no sinner was ever justified who will not be glorified there is an indefectible chain of relationship so that's not the issue and don't let anyone ever muddle your thinking well then what is the precise issue well the core issues are these and I want to give you four of them and this is a class so I'm expecting you to think this is teaching this is not primarily preaching though I am once in a while backsliding into the preaching all right first of all this is the issue can a man or woman be truly justified by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ and yet remain fundamentally unchanged in his moral constitution that's how we need to view these

34:34 issues positively what is the precise nature of the issue well here it is here is this sinner who is on his way to destruction we'll look at him in greater detail under point one in the morning sermon on the assumption about the sinner that he is indeed in bondage to sin here he is in the court of heaven he's guilty and when God deals with him as a judge there is only one thing he deserves that's condemnation now the question is this can this guilty held deserving sinner receive a sentence of justification in the court of heaven that is all of his sins pardoned and then he gets credited with a perfect righteousness can a sinner be justified can he be given the sentence of justifying grace in the court of heaven and remain

35:38 fundamentally unchanged in his moral constitution that is the state of his heart by nature the state of his affections by nature the state of his understanding by nature the pattern of what he does with his members his hands his feet his private sexual organs his eyes his ears his whole lifestyle can a man have a sentence of justifying grace in the court of heaven and remain fundamentally unchanged in his moral constitution on earth that is the issue do you see it that is the nub of the issue that's the heart of the issue don't fail to grasp that dimension of the issue we could state it this way does God ever change what goes on in the courtroom with reference to the sinner without

36:40 also bringing him into the operating room and changing the sinner himself that's the question i don't know how to state it more simply but now let's turn it and state it a little differently here's the heart of the issue can a person receive only half of the promised blessings secured by Jesus in the blood of the new covenant that's another way to state the question can a person receive only half of the promised blessings of the new covenant purchased by the blood of Christ turn to Hebrews chapters 8 and 10 and you'll understand my question we're trying to couch these things in biblical and theological terms so that you see the issues clearly in Hebrews 8 the writer to the Hebrews is quoting from the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah excuse me 31 and God says verse 8 finding fault with them he said that behold the days come I'll make a new covenant now then contrasting it with the old he then gives the terms of

Precise Identity of the Issue: Can a Person Receive Only Half of the New Covenant Blessings?

38:06 that covenant verse 10 this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days set the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and on their heart also will I write them I will be to them a god they shall be to me a people they shall not teach every man his fellow citizen and every man his brother saying know the Lord but they shall all know me from the least the greatest for I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more question lethal The whole first part of the promise of the New Covenant is it talking about something God does in the courtroom or something God does in the operating room? Which is it?

38:55 The heart. It's what God's doing in them, right? Listen. I will put my laws into their mind.

39:03 Oh, God's going to do something in their noggins.

39:08 I will put my laws into their minds of their heart. I'm going to do something in the depth of their very inner being, the heart being the seat of affection and will and desire and emotion. God's saying, I'm going to do something in their heads. I'm going to do something in their hearts.

39:26 And then he says, I will be to them a God. He's going to enter into interpersonal relationship. This is not just legal shuffling in heaven. I will be something to them experimentally.

39:40 Person to person. Person. They shall have an experimental knowledge of me. Then he says, their sins I will remember no more.

39:49 That's the courtroom. Now, my question is, does God ever apply only half of the promised blessings of the New Covenant? Or is Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant? It says in Hebrews 12, you are come unto Jesus, mediator of not half of the New Covenant, but mediator of the New Covenant.

40:10 That's pretty simple, isn't it? And the same thing is true if you read in Hebrews 10, but in the interest of time, we hurry on. Here's a third way to ask the question. Try to get at the heart of it.

Precise Identity of the Issue: Can a Person Be Marked for Perfection Without Striving for it Now?

40:23 Can a person be marked for moral perfection in heaven and not be striving for this perfection while here on earth?

40:38 That's another way to ask the question. Get at the heart of it. Can a person be truly marked for moral perfection in heaven? Now, every true believer is marked for moral perfection, right?

40:52 The scripture says that it doth not yet appear, 1 John 3, what we shall be, but we know that when he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We're marked for moral perfection. That's what God purposed in Eternity, Romans 8, 29. Whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.

41:21 And that will mean not only the perfection of our spirit, but Philippians 1, he shall fashion the body of our humiliation like unto his own glorious body according to the power whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Now the question is this. Can a man or woman be marked out by grace for moral perfection in the age to come? While not earnestly pursuing that perfection now while he awaits the age to come?

41:55 That's the question. How can this be heaven in a man's heart when the Bible says what has your heart will have your life? Yet all these people say, Oh, glory, going to get to heaven, be perfect. Are you striving to be perfect now?

42:14 Oh, no, salvation's all of grace. You see, according to a passage like Philippians chapter 3, this is the pivotal passage, this is the pivotal passage on this issue. God never marks a man out for perfection in the age to come, but what he embeds in his heart here and now, a yearning for that perfection and both the desire and the power to pursue it. Never, never, never.

42:46 That's what the earnest of the Spirit is and that's why Paul says, we that are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burdened. Why? God's given us a down payment of what we're going to be and he's filled us with yearnings of what we're going to be and therefore we not only pursue it, we long for it, we yearn for it. But look at Philippians chapter 3,

43:10 verse 12, not that I've already obtained or am already made perfect, but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which I was laid whole, laid hold on by Christ Jesus. And in the context, what was he laid hold on by Christ Jesus for? Ultimate perfection. That's what God had in mind when he laid hold of Saul of Tarsus to make him just like Jesus in the last day.

43:38 And he said, I've not yet attained, I'm not already perfect, but oh, I long to lay hold of the thing for which God has laid hold of me. And in the light of it then, look at what he says. Brethren, I count not myself to have laid hold but one thing, one thing I do. Forgetting the things that are behind and stretching forward to the things that are before, I press on toward the gold unto the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.

44:08 Let us therefore as many as are mature or full grown be thus minded. And if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you. In other words, if happy, wispy, dreamy notions of heaven and perfection in the age to come, don't make you and me roll up our sleeves and fight for perfection. Now we're self-deceived.

44:41 If you're stamped for perfection in the age to come, you're stamped with yearnings for it in the present age. That's the heart of the issue. That's the heart of it. And one other way I want to, to express it, to get the heart of the issue, and this is to use the pictorial imagery of our Lord.

Precise Identity of the Issue: Narrow Gate and Narrow Way

45:03 Let me ask the question this way. Can anyone biblically claim that he's gotten through the narrow gate of biblical conversion if he is not seriously walking on the narrow way of biblical holiness?

45:22 Turn to Matthew 7. Can anyone biblically claim that he's gotten through the narrow gate of biblical conversion who is not seriously walking on the narrow way of biblical holiness?

45:45 Jesus said,

45:48 three things are inseparably joined in the salvation of God. Here they are. Enter ye in at the narrow gate. A regal imperative suffusion used with grace.

46:05 Now there's another alternative. Wide is the gate. Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many are they that enter in thereby for, now notice, narrow is the gate and straightened or compressed, literally, hemmed in with difficulty is the way which leads into life.

46:37 Nobody's going to get to consummate life in heaven who doesn't get there by the compressed way. And nobody's on the compressed way who doesn't get through the narrow gate. Now my question is this. Does anyone have biblical grounds to say he has come through the narrow gate if he's in any other place but the narrow way of biblical holiness?

47:03 And I say the answer of my Bibles is plain as the nose on my face, and I believe I could sit down with my five-year-old granddaughter with this text and that illustration and get the right answer out of her as a matter of conviction and not wrote.

47:20 But God have mercy on an evangelical and a reformed church that has chopped these things up and is telling multitudes, sure you're converted, sure you're going to have life, and there's no serious self-denying, world-defying, Fleshed, withering pursuit of the narrow way of biblical holiness. And it's time some of you face the fact you are kidding yourself. You've taken this thing and you have stretched it and you've widened it out and you can import the world's entertainment and the world's perspective and the world's ambitions and you still think you're going to life. May God wake you up this morning.

48:04 May God come today by the Holy Ghost and blast. Into nothing but a handful of religious ashes. Your self-deception. And get you through this gate and on this way.

48:18 Because I tell you, none of us is getting to heaven in marine dress blues and spit and polished shoes. We're going to get there with bullet dents in our helmet, with our clothing shredded, with arms and fingers perhaps chopped off and hobbling. But we're going to make it. We're going to make it.

48:42 But we're not going to be make it carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. You want it easy? Join us of the let's go fun but go to heaven when we die crowd that'll end in hell. This place by the grace of God is going to be marked more and more as a society, a blood-soaked, scarred soldiers paying any price to be holy.

49:20 No longer finding ways to make the way wider because we came out of dysfunctional families. You say the way is wide if you had a dysfunctional family.

49:38 We had great childhood trauma. Didn't have good models. Where's that in your Bible? Show it to me from this book.

49:48 There's one narrow gate and there's one narrow way. Dysfunctional families, bad models, rotten abuses, children, horrible experiences. It matters not. The grace of my Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to get us through the gate onto the way and hallelujah take us to life.

50:09 And that's the kind of Christianity we're committed to in this place.

Conclusion and Prayer: Confronting Self-Deception

50:13 Are you?

50:15 May God grant that we shall. Well that was preaching the last three minutes. But I hope the. Teaching has helped to clarify the issue.

50:25 You see it now. I've labored to be simple, clear. God help us in the next hour. We'll then take up the word of God and seek to prove from the scriptures.

50:37 Sin's dominion is broken in conversion. And in the Christian life tonight, there's an irreconcilable warfare with sin. Let's pray.

50:50 Father, we thank you for being with us this morning. I do thank you for your people in this. Place who love your word, but Lord, you know, the burden of my heart and the hearts of some others of us that there has been altogether too much willingness to put bulges in the narrow way, carrying over the garbage and the baggage of our past and excusing why we've not been willing to walk the narrow way. Lord have dealings with us purge from us everything that doesn't line up with the book and cause us by your grace, not only to be a people whose faith in Christ produces a life of obedience to Christ, but whose faith in Christ leads us into a growing conformity to the moral image of Christ seal your word, give your people discernment for those who ought to come under deep conviction today. Oh, may this be the day of days, Lord, when what they thought was gold is seen for what it is not, but food. And may they buy of you true gold tried in the fire. May they anoint their eyes with eyesalve that they may see.

52:08 Oh, God, make it a glorious day in your courts, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.