What Baggage Must Go to Get Through the Gate?

Introduction: The Narrow Gate and Its Implications

0:00 Now I invite you again to turn with me to Matthew chapter 7. As again tonight we rivet our attention upon the words of our Lord Jesus, found in verses 13 and 14. 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.

0:31 How narrow is the gate and compressed or difficult the way that leads unto life and few are they that find it. We come this evening to the continuation of our consideration of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. In our initial study this morning, I spent a few minutes to look at the larger context of these words of Jesus, that context being His appearance in the upper regions of Palestine around the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum,

1:17 where multitudes gathered about him as he preached the gospel of the kingdom and manifested the gracious power of the kingdom by healing the sick, casting out demons. And as our Lord preaches concerning this matter of the kingdom, the kingdom God's rule of grace and power that appears in the person of the king of grace and power, with the multitude gathered about him and in the presence of that more intimate band that he's been gathering to himself called the disciples, in chapters 5 to 7 of Matthew we have what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount

2:07 in which our Lord gives what many have called a manifesto of the kingdom. What do the subjects of this kingdom that he is preaching look like? How do those subjects live? What is their standard of right and of wrong?

2:26 How do they relate to God in the midst of their religious and devotional exercises? How do they relate to the world of money and things and the necessities of this life? And how do they relate to one another and to their fellow men? Our Lord has been describing in this comprehensive way what this kingdom He has been preaching looks like.

2:52 How the subjects are to be recognized. How they are to conduct themselves in the world in which they are called to live. And then after giving all of this instruction concerning the kingdom, here at verse 13, our Lord now makes it abundantly clear that He has not been giving this instruction simply to inform His disciples, and in a very real sense to shock the multitudes by demonstrating how different is this kingdom from the religious experience that they were aware of, but he is now concerned that people actually enter this kingdom. And so we have in verses 13 and 14,

3:40 our Lord's more than invitation, his gracious and regal command that his hearers actually enter that kingdom. And so having looked at the more remote and immediate context of our verses, we then noted three things this morning from the text. First, the gracious and regal command to enter the kingdom through the imagery of entering a narrow gate. Enter in by the narrow gate.

4:13 And the closest thing we have to it is most likely that which we identify as a turnstile in which you can only enter one by one, in which you must put down and either discard or push under the turnstile, or in some other way have your goods go through separate from your person. And our Lord issues this gracious and regal command to enter the kingdom through this narrow door or narrow gate. And then secondly we saw the gracious and regal warning to beware of an attractive and popular alternative to the narrow door. Enter in by the narrow gate for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction.

5:04 And many are they that enter in thereby. And then we noted thirdly this morning the gracious but regal insistence of the inseparable relationship between the narrow door, the difficult or compressed way, and eternal life. None enter into eternal life in its consummate glory and bliss unless they get there by the compressed and difficult way. And none can be found upon that difficult and compressed way unless they come through the narrow door.

5:42 It is the door, the way, and life. No entrance into life if we miss the gate and if we are not found upon the way. And now this evening I want us to focus our attention upon what I am describing as the baggage that must go if we're to get through the narrow gate. The baggage that must go if we are to get through the narrow gate.

6:18 And then God willing next Lord's Day morning, if he spares us and brings us together again, the difficulties we must endure if we are to persevere in the constricted and difficult way. So the baggage and the difficulties. Ah, but you say, Pastor Martin, how oppressive. My friends, I did not write the passage.

6:44 It is Jesus who having opened up the nature of his kingdom, the character traits of the subject of the kingdom, the wonderful privileges within the kingdom of having a loving Father who knows our needs, who has pledged to keep our needs, to meet our needs, whose ear is open to the cry of his children, all of the privileges, he now says, enter that kingdom by a narrow gate. I didn't put it there, he did. And he says that coming through that gate, it will issue not upon a broad and an easy, but a narrow, a constricted and a difficult way. And if you care not enough for life to look straight at the narrow gate

7:32 and face its implications, look at the constricted way and face its implications, then you will indeed take that convenient and popular alternative of the wide gate, of some kind of religious Christian experience, and some kind of religious Christian way of life, but it will not be the narrow gate and the compressed way which alone lead to life. My friend, that's not oppressive. That's liberating to know that there is a gate. Upon entering it, one will know the reality and blessedness of true kingdom life on earth and then the glory and the wonder of consummate kingdom blessing in the age to come.

Baggage 1: Casting Off Self-Righteousness and Self-Sufficiency

8:22 And so tonight we focus our attention upon the baggage that must go if you are to get through the narrow gate. And I want us to consider together four pieces of baggage that have to go if you're going to get through the gate. You can't push them under the turnstile and pick them up the other side. You cannot simply detach yourself for a while, find some kind of a spiritual locker, and put them in there to come back and take them along the way.

8:58 No, they must be from the heart repudiated, abandoned. They are baggage that must be gotten rid of, or we will never enter the narrow gate. The first is this, if you, if I would get through the narrow gate, we must cast away from the heart the baggage of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency as the basis of our acceptance with God. If we would get through the narrow gate of radical biblical conversion, we must cast away from the heart, not merely by mouthing a prayer taught to us by others or put into our mouths by a personal worker.

9:53 we must cast away from the heart the baggage of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency as the basis of our acceptance with God. The Bible teaches us that sin has so twisted our minds and perverted our hearts that left to ourselves we are either utterly unconcerned about being right with God, or we are utterly deceived as to the only way of being right with God. Utterly unconcerned or utterly deceived. And the Bible gives us a picture of both areas of delusion.

10:41 In Luke chapter 12, our Lord paints the picture of a man utterly indifferent to being right with God. His business is blessed. he pulls down his barns and builds bigger ones, and then he says to himself, Soul, take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. You have much goods laid up for many years.

11:03 A man who acted like he were an animal and had no never-dying soul. Utterly unconcerned. And Jesus said, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. There may be some of you sitting here in that category, and you pride yourself that in the midst of all the circumstances of life and the most earnest, somber preaching, the most sobering things you heard before I opened up the Scriptures tonight, that it doesn't touch you at all.

11:38 It doesn't even for a moment cause a twitch of worry or concern, and you pride yourself. My friend, you are of all people to be most pitied. You lived like you were a worm, a dog, a cat, or a whale, and had no never-dying soul. It's nothing to be proud of that you were so out of touch with the reality of who and what you are.

12:07 The moment you were conceived in your mother's womb, you were conceived an immortal, never-dying being. and in body and soul you will have existence forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. In exquisite, unspeakable, indescribable bliss and wonder and glory, in the company of all the redeemed and the holy angels and of the triune God himself, especially revealed in the glorious face of the Lamb upon the throne, or in a place of indescribable, unthinkable horror,

12:59 and pain, and weeping, and waving, and gnashing of teeth, in the company of the damned, and of demons, and of the devil himself. and you pride yourself I don't think about those things don't get to me we weep for you we weep for you in the horrible frightening devil inspired hardness of your heart pray that God may break it even under the preaching of the Word tonight, left to ourselves. We are either like the man of Luke 12

13:45 and like some of you sitting here, unconcerned about being right with God or we are deceived as to the only way of becoming right with God. And there you have a vivid picture a few chapters later in Luke chapter 18. Two men went up into the temple to pray. Luke 18.10, the one a Pharisee, The other a publican.

14:08 The Pharisee stood thus and prayed with himself, saying, God, I thank you I am not like other men. And then he begins to brag before God about what he does not do, and then what he does do. And he thanks God that he is not like a publican, this one who stands afar off, whose lifestyle and reputation is of the sordid darker hue. And this man actually thinks that God is such a meager God that he will be impressed with the trivia of the nice little religious things he does and the little moral actions that he performs.

14:52 He's utterly deceived as to the basis upon which he as a fallen son of Adam can find acceptance with God. Left to ourselves, we are either utterly unconcerned as to the only way of becoming right with God, or utterly deceived. And if we're ever to get through the narrow gate, we must not only have that devil-inspired, devil-projected indifference to being right with God, shattered, to where like the Philippian jailer, nothing matters at any time of day or night than the question, what must I do to be saved?

15:38 What must I do to be right with God? And once we are brought out of that devil-inspired indifference to a place of spirit-wrought concern, then we must be brought to the place where we see that the basis of being accepted with God lies not in us, what we are, what we have done, what we have not done, but lies wholly outside of us in the doing and the dying of another, even of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we see strong hints of this right here in the Sermon on the Mount. For when Jesus begins at the beginning of this sermon to talk about the perfect happiness of the sons and daughters of the kingdom,

16:30 Where does he begin? Listen to the first two Beatitudes. Perfectly happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

16:53 The first two Beatitudes point to people who've come through the narrow gate, at which they have repudiated from the heart the baggage of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency as the ground of their acceptance with God. They know what it is by the word of God to be stripped and to see themselves as utterly naked with no virtue to commend themselves. They are poor in spirit. They've been brought to the posture of that second man in Luke 18 called the publican, who standing afar off does not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven

17:42 and beats upon his breast and cries, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I take my place as a sinner, undone, guilty, wrath-deserving, impotent, to fix myself up. And, O God, I go out of myself to you in your mercy, in your propitiating activity through the sacrifice of another. O God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

18:15 And so the mark of all who enter that narrow gate is that they come through stripped of this disposition of self and self And they own in the language of the hymn that we sang tonight just as I am without one plea, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Jesus will say later on in Matthew 18, 3, Except you be converted and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.

19:01 And what is the state and the condition of little children essential to enter the kingdom, to get through the gate? Little children are in the posture of dependentness. They do not protect themselves. They do not provide for themselves.

19:19 They do not guide themselves. They are the helpless, the vulnerable, the weak ones. Jesus said, unless you be converted, turned about, and get away from all notions of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, cast away the baggage of anything in you or done by you as the ground of your acceptance with God. And say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, anything that was vain to me of religious background, of religious heritage, of religious activity, of my reputation among the religious crowd, I counted all but scubala, refuse, dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him.

20:09 not having a righteousness of my own, but the righteousness which is of God in Christ and received by faith. Reading Matthew 7, 13 and 14 in the light of the full revelation of the New Testament, there at that narrow gate is a cross. That cross that indicts us as sinners. Yet that cross that says, because He died for sin, I need not die for my sin.

20:40 I may enter in through the narrow gate, utterly stripped of all hope of acceptance with God, in any way related to what I am, what I do. Poor of spirit, truly grieved and mourning my state of utter barrenness, My shameful rebellion against God. My utter lack of anything to commend myself to God. It becomes more than a word in my mouth that mama and daddy and teacher and preacher and Sunday school teacher taught me.

21:20 I feel my wretchedness. I own the sense of my barrenness. And therefore I am prepared to cast off from the heart all self-sufficiency and self-righteousness as the ground of my acceptance with God. That's why Jesus had to say in Luke 13, strive to enter the narrow gate.

21:48 That's hard stuff for some people. You read in Romans 10 where Paul speaks of his burden for his fellow Jews. And he says, they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. It's a narrow gate.

22:07 Because everyone who gets through it, regardless of what he or she has done or not done, has or does not have, the ground is utterly level. The first step inside that gate, we all stand as wretched, vile. hell deserving, wrath deserving, sinners whose only hope is in another, who lived the life we should live, died the death we deserve to die. It's a narrow gate.

Baggage 2: Casting Off Self-Will as the Governing Principle

22:42 And if you're sitting here this night and you've not come to that place, my friend, you'll never get through that gate and be found on that compressed way if it leads to life, until from the heart you cast off the baggage of every last vestige of self-righteousness and self-dependency. Then secondly, if you are to enter the narrow gate, you must cast away from the heart, and hear me carefully, the baggage of self-will as the governing principle of your life. If you're to get through the narrow gate, you must cast away from the heart the baggage of self-will as the governing principle of your life.

23:37 You and I were made to have the will of God as the all-embracing universal principle by which our lives were to be governed. This was true in Eden. All of the glorious privileges afforded Adam and Eve. God made it plain that they would know those privileges, the acne of which was unbroken communion with God.

24:05 They would know them only so long as the will of God was the governing principle of their lives. He gave them many commands, and among them was this. of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of that tree that is in the midst of the garden you shall not eat of it, for in eating, dying, you will die. Adam, would you continue to know all of the blessedness of the world into which I've placed you?

24:38 Here's the governing principle of that world with respect to your life. It is to be my will. And as long as you stay within the parameters of my revealed will, a will in which I call the shots about what you do and don't do right down to what you eat and don't eat, Adam, you will know the blessedness of being a creature made in my image, made with a capacity to know me and commune with me. All that you know in the dawning of your consciousness as you came from my creative hand and heart, Adam, it will be yours in perpetuity so long as the governing principle of your life is my will, not your will.

25:28 Well, you know the story. When Adam sinned, there was a casting off of this principle of the will of God as the governing principle of his life. And self now sits on the throne so that when God describes all of us who are Adam's progeny, how does he describe us in Isaiah 53, 6? all we like sheep have gone astray there's the collective picture the whole human race viewed as one vast flock of strange sheep gone astray from god gone astray from his law but then the prophet moves from that generic collective picture and then he points the finger at every single one

26:16 of us and this is what he says we have turned every one of us to his own way there's the particular we have turned every one of us and what have we turned to not necessarily to open idolatry to adultery, to murder, to lying, to blasphemy. No, but we have turned each and every one of us to his own way. In other words, we have our tailor-made pattern of self-government. And the principle that orders life is what I want.

27:01 my life is mine to live as I choose by the standards that I like and are comfortable with me and that I feel are in my best interest and I don't care if God has his set of thou shalt and thou shalt not you may and you may not I don't care there is one governing principle for my life and it's what I want so that when Paul describes all of us by nature, picks up that same motif of the prophet, and he says these words, and that he, Christ, died for all, that those who live, 2 Corinthians 5.15, should no longer live unto themselves,

27:52 but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. He describes every one of us by nature as living unto himself. The governing principle of life is self-will, pleasing self. That's it.

28:07 It's true of you. It's true of me. And if you never discovered it, you don't know who and what you are. Because that is what you are by nature.

28:16 That is what I am. When we come to this gate, this narrow gate by which we enter into the kingdom, The king in that kingdom, the king of grace, whose cross stands at that gate by which alone we have forgiveness and pardon and acceptance with God. He stands as king in his kingdom. And if you come into that kingdom, there's an exchange of government.

28:46 The crown gets off your stinking unworthy head, and his crown is placed on your head. His symbol of authority, his scepter is stretched forth, and you cheerfully and delightfully bow and kiss that scepter, And you say, O King of grace, who could consign me to hell in the last day as the righteous judge? You who have come forth from heaven by way of Mary's womb came into this world, lived the life I should live, died the death I should die. And now you graciously command me to enter a kingdom of light and of truth and of forgiveness and of joy and of peace and of pardon.

29:40 Oh, Lord Jesus, how unthinkable that I should do anything but say, Here, Lord, I give myself away. no longer will self-will be the governing principle of my life. But, O Lord Jesus, Your will will be the governing principle in the totality of my life. You see, that is the assumption of all the ethical directives of the Sermon on the Mount.

30:17 You see, the Lord says to those gathered around Him, You have heard that it was said. Your ethics and your standard of life was being framed by the opinion of the scribes and the Pharisees and the rabbinical traditions. But I say unto you. Again and again through that section of Matthew 5.

30:39 I say unto you. I say unto you. I say unto you. And when he comes toward the end where he's pressing the issues of entering the kingdom and the very real possibility that we can become very active in kingdom work with kingdom language and kingdom sermons on our lips.

31:01 And many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not preach in your name? Lord, Lord, did we not in your name do many mighty works? And he will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. What introduces that whole section?

31:14 It's these words. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, uses the language of an exchange of government. No, that's easy. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, look at it in your own Bibles, Matthew 7 and verse 21.

31:33 Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, who learns the language of devotion, learns the language of attachment. Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that is doing the will of my Father. not perfectly but purposely universally as an entirely fundamentally new principle of life I live to the will of God as revealed in the word of God that's who I am just as surely as before I got through the gate I lived with my will and my desires and my ambitions

32:19 as the regulating governing principle of life, at that date there's an exchange of government that is deep, pervasive, radical, and then manifested as we shall see next week, God willing, in every single department of our lives. Not perfectly, but really and universally and manifestly it goes beyond the mere language, my dear friends. Anybody can say, Lord, Lord, but the issue is, who's got the crown on whose head? That's the issue. Who's got the scepter? That's why the gate's

33:05 narrow. Because we love ourselves. We love governing ourselves. We love living unto ourselves.

33:15 And that's why Jesus, whenever he called people into attachment to himself, what was the first requirement? He turned and saw the multitudes and said, Any man will come after me. Let him deny himself. That's the word used when Peter cursed and denied, saying, I know not the man.

33:39 He totally, temporarily dissociated himself to Jesus. I know not the man. I have no relationship to him. Jesus said, you do that with self or you can't be my disciple.

33:53 If any man will come after me, let him totally dissociate himself from the self that governed him up to the point that he stood before the gate. And at that point, he denies himself. No longer is living unto self the governing principle of life. That's why Jesus used the terms, if you would save your life, the self-willed, self-centered life, the life governed by the principle of self-government, you'll lose it.

34:26 But whoever will lose his life, he didn't say lose a part of it. Take one of the grosser aspects where self-government manifested itself and clean your act up. No, you go to the very root. The very root of living to yourself is struck a death blow at the gate of true entrance into the kingdom of God.

34:52 If you're to enter the narrow gate, you must cast from the heart the baggage of self-will as the governing principle of your life. And that's not only New Testament gospel, that's Old Testament gospel through the prophet Isaiah chapter 55, 7 and 8. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

35:21 Let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy. and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. When does he pardon?

35:39 When the sinner comes up to the gate, strutting with his principle of self-determination, self-will. My standards are how I'm going to operate as I relate to my parents, as I relate to my peers, as I relate to my amusements, as I relate to my friends, as I relate to my sexual appetites and capacities. I'm going to govern what I do with the totality of life. I come up to the gate.

36:03 Oh, yeah, I know I'll go to hell in this case. So I'd like a little pardon. Lord, you said you're ready to pardon. You said it in your word.

36:09 You'll abundantly pardon. God would point his figure and say, look, you impudent son or daughter of Adam, listen to what I said. Seek me while I may be found. Call upon me while I'm near.

36:21 Let the wicked forsake his way. And then return to me and find me a pardoning God. if you're determined to go on in your own way, you'll find me a wrathful God. You'll find me a vengeful God.

36:36 You'll find me a God who will say to you through my Son in the last day, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.

36:47 Prepared for the first one who wanted self-government to be the governing principle of his life, who didn want his place assigned by God but who said I will I will ascend to the hill of the Most High I will be like Him

37:08 Self-government is of the essence of what the devil is, is devil. And there's a place prepared for Him and everyone who lives by that principle. That means, young people, listen to me, that means you come to Christ, and you've already got your life mapped out and your plans mapped out for marriage and for career, you're ready to put every single bit of that up for grabs for Jesus. And say, Lord Jesus, you know whether or not in your providence and common grace you have overruled in shaping what I thought should be my goal, my ambition, my purposes in life.

37:50 But Lord Jesus, I don't come with my list of the things you must rubber stamp. Lord Jesus, I come with a blank slate. Yours to be whatever you want me to be.

38:07 You ready for that, young people? Then don't talk about being saved. Don't weary your elders by spending time in an interview and giving them a nice theological yarn about, you know you're a sinner and Christ died. If you can't look God in the eye and look us in the eye and say, one thing is true of me.

38:31 Self-will is no longer the governing principle of my life. God knows it. I know it. And the people close enough to me know it by the grace of God.

38:45 I'm no longer living unto self but unto him who died for me and rose again that's why the gate's narrow folks it's narrow Jesus said it is entered in by the narrow gate I know, I know what you're thinking oh, but it seems there are others who say they know they're forgiven and they know they have eternal life and there's not this radical disruption in the totality of their whole audience Yes, there is a wide gate, and there is a broad way, but look at its end. Its end is destruction.

39:22 Its end is destruction. It may mean church membership now and baptism now, so you get a decent Christian wife or husband now, but the end is destruction.

39:35 And it will be the destruction of Trinity Church if it gets filled with a second generation of kids who know the language. but who are strangers to this radical fundamental orientation from self to Christ.

39:54 That's why I'm burdened. You can consider me a crazy wild old man. Consider me what you will. This is God's word.

40:04 Enter by the narrow gate. It's narrow. It'll never be wide. It's only the narrow gate.

Baggage 3: Casting Off Sin as the Deliberate Practice and Pattern of Life

40:14 It leads to the compressed way that issues in the glory of everlasting life. But I hasten on. There's a third bunch of baggage that will be dealt with at the gate, and it's this. If you are to enter the narrow gate, you must cast away from your heart the baggage of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of your life.

40:46 Now, you listen carefully. I've chosen every word carefully, seeking to embody the teaching of Scripture. If you are to enter the narrow gate, you must cast away from your heart the baggage of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of your life. By nature, sin is the deliberate practice and pattern of all of our lives.

41:17 Jesus said in John 8, whosoever commits sin is the bond slave of sin. In Romans 6, the Apostle Paul is abundantly clear that by nature, every one of us practices sin. Sin is personified in Romans 6 as a master to whom we yield as a pattern of life obedience in the concreteness of our eyes, our ears, our hands, our tongues, our emotional and psychological capacities and appetites. Listen to what Paul could say.

41:53 He'd never been to Rome. He'd never observed the lifestyle of the Romans, but he can say this without fear of contradiction. Romans chapter 6 and verse 16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants or slaves to obedience, his slaves you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?

42:21 But thanks be to God that whereas you were the slaves of sin. He said all of you Romans were the slaves of sin. And in what sense were they the slaves? Unwittingly, unknowingly?

42:38 No. Verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. As you presented your members, your human faculties, as slaves to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. Verse 20, for when you were the slaves of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness.

43:03 righteousness spoke its demands it spoke its voice of holiness and you acted like free men you said to the demands of righteousness echoed in the law and revealed will of God who are you to tell me what to do I have no allegiance to you my allegiance is to sin when sin said to me give me your eyes to lust I gave my eyes to sin when sin said give me your tongue to gossip give me your tongue to curse, give me your tongue to lie, give me your tongue to be sarcastic and wound and cut others, you gave your tongue. When sin said, give me your ears to listen to filth and to vileness. When sin said, give me your hands to touch forbidden objects, to be placed upon another's

43:48 body in ways forbidden by God, you said, yes, hands, I'll do your bidding. You see, Paul is very concrete that our bondage to sin was volitional, deliberate, concrete in the members of our body. And that's true of all of us. And though in some it makes people gross and vile and filthy, in the externals, in others it's far more subtle. But in all the slavery is true. And when we come up to the gate, that gate, the narrow gate that enters into the kingdom, what's the nature of that kingdom into which we enter. It's a holy kingdom. It's a righteous kingdom. The subjects of the kingdom are described in the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount in what language?

44:36 They hunger and they thirst for righteousness. They are pure in heart. They are so committed to a life of righteousness that the world can't stand them, and it picks on them, and He says, blessed are you when you suffer for righteousness' sake. And then when the Lord assures His followers, I've not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.

45:01 And He makes known that His reign of grace does not cancel the authority of the law, but that the law presses down upon them to shape their lives in all the length and breadth and depth of its significance. He says five times, you've heard that it was said, but I say to you, And this law will touch your thoughts and your eyes as well as your hands. They will no longer be slaves to the sin of lust and adultery. But you'll be able to say, with Job, I've made a covenant with my eyes.

45:33 I've made a covenant with my heart. I shall seek by the grace of God to be a holy man, a holy woman, in the reigning in of sexual appetites and desires and fantasies. He says that you have heard that it was said you shall not kill. I say unto you that the essence of murder is unjust anger, seething in the heart, which if not dealt with will land you in hell.

46:02 What's the Lord saying in the Sermon on the Mount? He's telling us that His kingdom is a righteous kingdom. You want to enter that kingdom, He says, in royal and gracious authority. Enter! You're entering a kingdom.

46:16 in which righteousness is to be the governing principle of all the subjects of the kingdom. They are to be passionate, to be holy in thought, in word, in relation to God, in relation to men, in relationship to society. You are to be salt and you are to be light. You are not to so blend in and become part of the world that they don't know that you are sons and daughters of the kingdom.

46:44 A kingdom of righteousness. a kingdom of holiness so you want to get through the narrow gate then you've got to settle it there at the gate you've got to cast away from your heart the baggage of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of your life all sin your darling sin your sin that may be to you what riches were to the young ruler in Matthew 19. Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? I want to get through the gate and into the way that leads to life.

47:24 What must I do? Jesus said, in essence, first of all, young man, you've got to know who you are. Keep the commandments. Which ones?

47:35 The Lord quotes the second table of the law. He looks up at the Lord and says, all these things I've done from my youth, I'm morally blameless in my horizontal relationships. One thing you lack, young man. Go, sell that you have, give to the poor.

47:55 Come, follow me. You'll have treasure in heaven. Do what I say and you'll get through the narrow gate. What was the Lord saying?

48:08 Saying, young man, I see your heart that you don't know. You don't know your heart. If you knew your heart, you would have said to me, Lord, all these things at least externally I have kept from my youth up, but I have found many a time a disposition of anger and ill will to my parents, though I outwardly obeyed them. And I have found in my heart lustful thoughts and desires, though I have never put my hands upon a woman in an illicit way.

48:36 Oh, Lord Jesus, what can I do for a heart that sins? the Lord takes him at his word and says, I'll show him his heart. He said, I see into that heart, and in that heart there's a throne, and on that throne there's a bag of money. Now, young man, you want eternal life, you want to get through that gate and enter into the bliss of my forgiving grace and pardon?

48:58 Then from the heart repudiate not only sin in general, but your darling sin in particular. Go sell that you have. Give to the poor. Come follow me.

49:13 I offer myself to you young man. And the young man said in essence. I want my money. It will give me more than Jesus will give me.

49:26 Blind. A slave of sin.

49:30 I want to say to you on the basis of that principle. the one sin you deliberately spare will damn you.

49:42 Hear me. I didn't say that one sin that is so stubborn and though you war and fight and pray and may even fast in order to receive supplies of grace to mortify it and yet it plagues you that sin will not damn you. I said the one sin you deliberately spare will damn you. Now, don't twist what I said.

50:11 I didn't say the one sin that plagues you may damn you. That would be heresy. But the one sin you spare for the rich young ruler, it was his money. For you, it may be your gossiping tongue.

50:27 And you've admitted for years, oh, you know, I do have a gospel. You don't weep over it. You don't use every means to see it mortified by the power of the Spirit. You're not waging all-out warfare against that sin.

50:45 You're sparing it. The once in a while you whimper in admission to someone else that you have a problem with it. It may be your addiction to Internet pornography.

50:58 You're not waging all-out warfare. You've not set up filters. You've not gotten rid of your access to it if it's not an essential thing in your life. You're playing games.

51:11 You're sparing the idol of your lust and it'll damn you. You'll never be in the kingdom and know the power and the dynamic of kingdom grace until from the heart you repudiate and cast off your darling sin.

51:31 For some of you, it's your snotty attitude to your parents. Do you know you may keep all the other commandments externally, but you break the fifth commandment willfully, deliberately as a pattern of life, and you'll go to hell.

51:45 You'll go to hell. You'll go to hell.

51:51 Till you young people still under your parents' authorities come to that gate and say, Oh, God, I see that my attitude, my stinking attitude, my parents, is really a stinking attitude to you. I don't like it that you put them over me. I don't like it that you tell them to tell me what to do, where to go, and when to come home, and who to be with. I don't like the whole stinking thing, God.

52:15 God says, well, you better like it or I'll damn you. I send rebels against my law to hell. Now, here's your choice. Stack arms, repudiate that wretched, vile sin from your heart, and enter the gate.

52:32 Or cling to it and be damned.

52:37 Repudiate from the heart all sin as a pattern and a way of life. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon what sinners will he pardon? sinners that are not only forsaking their way but forsaking their sinful thoughts you young men willfully deliberately indulging fantasies of a sexual nature and sexual self-indulgence in masturbation you'll go to hell until you repudiate it you may struggle to gain victory over it but you'll wage every bit of gospel warfare against it.

53:24 But you just say, oh, well, all the kids do it, so I'll do it. You never come through the gate, my friend.

53:31 For some of you, dishonesty,

53:36 pattern of dishonesty in your dealings with the government, your tax returns. For others of you, it's shaving the truth in interpersonal reactions. Your lack of transparency with your wife or your husband is a deliberate attempt to punish them. Because you know their silence is a form of torture.

53:55 And that's wicked. And you've never repudiated it. And gone down before God and said, Oh God, it's wicked to punish my wife by my inordinate willful silence. You've told me to nurture her.

54:11 To cherish her as you cherish your church. Lord Jesus, I abuse her with my tied tongue.

54:20 That's my sin. That sin will damn me unless I reject it from the heart and lay hold of God for the grace to begin to love with the use of your tongue.

54:37 Need I go on? Given enough specifics? Is your conscience at work? for some of you it's the hand that reaches for inordinate amounts of food and you know you're digging your grave with your teeth the medical evidence of the debilitating effect of obesity is conclusive and when God says you shall do no murder and the catechism answers the question what are we to do to keep that commandment we are to do all within our power to preserve our life and the life of others.

55:14 And you willfully, deliberately, oh yes, you whine about it, you say, I got a problem, but you have not from the heart said, oh God my gluttony must die or I will die God puts gluttony and drunkenness in the same sentence in His Word Some of you it is your abuse of alcohol

55:42 You like getting your buzz on. There was no problem for me. As I said to one man years ago, it's no problem. Tell me that for three months you didn't touch a drop.

55:53 If it's your Christian liberty, tell me, show me you really are liberated. that you're free to indulge or not indulge. Show me your freedom for three months. He couldn't do it.

56:05 But he wouldn't admit he was addicted. Folks, we've got to stop this mandy-pandy playing about with sin when God says, in Ezekiel chapter 18, verses 30 and 31, these profoundly simple but pointed words. They come to us as the word of the living God. Hear them as I read them.

56:34 I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord. Return, turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions. transgressions wherein you have transgressed. Make you a new heart and a new spirit, for why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says the Lord God.

57:04 Wherefore, turn yourselves and live? But you say, I've got no power to make a new heart. I've got no power to turn from awe. That's right. But it's when you know you must, that you will cry to God until grace is given to break the power and the dominion of sin.

57:24 When you know you must and you know you can't, then you're shut up to God with whom all things are possible. When you say to God, Oh God, I'm no longer just going to occasionally admit I've got a problem here. Lord, this is sin that you say must be cast away. Lord, if it isn't cast away, it'll damn me.

57:48 And I don't want this sin to damn me. I don't want this sin that rubs salt in the wounds of my Savior. I don't want this sin that triples my moral authority in my home, shuts my mouth in the nurture of my wife, shuts my mouth in the admonitions to my husband, shuts my mouth from close heart dealings with my children. Oh, God, I'm sick and tired of playing games.

58:17 Is that where you are?

58:20 God granted some of you will be brought there. Until you are, you've got no biblical grounds to say you've ever got through the gate. Because as we'll see next week, part of that compressed way is the willingness to deal with sin at any cost, short of sin. right hands right eyes cut off cast from us plucked out and thrown away if you're going to enter the narrow gate you must cast away from your heart the baggage of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of your life and finally this is where I believe some of you

Baggage 4: Casting Off the World and Its Ways as Your Chosen Companion

59:09 are utterly deceived. I say that with no pleasure. But I must be honest. If you would enter the narrow gate, you must forsake from the heart the world and its ways as your chosen companion in life.

59:30 If you would enter the narrow gate, you must forsake from the heart the world and its ways as your chosen companion in life. Now, what do I mean by the world? I mean by the world that which the Scripture means when it says in passages such as 1, I'm sorry, Ephesians chapter 2, Paul describes the unconverted state of the Ephesians this way. You did he make alive who were dead through your trespasses and sins.

60:06 wherein you once walked you were walking dead men you were spiritually dead but you had ethical and moral conduct you walked according to the course of this world that is the patterns of this world its standards of right and wrong of wholesome entertainment and diversions and avocations it has its standards of dress on the beach at the pool, in the school, in the church. It has its standards of dress, of demeanor. It has its patterns of human relationships.

60:53 You walked according to the course of this world and who is behind this world course, shaping it and molding it According to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit who is actively at work in the sons of disobedience. Behind this fallen world system of things, with all of the various strands that comprise this world system, is a devil that hates God, that hates his law, that hates Christ, that hates everything that is an exposure of himself and of his nefarious efforts to destroy and to damn the souls of men.

61:41 That's what the world is. It's that world that John says, love not the world, that system of things, neither the things that are in the world. Then he specifies the world's trinity. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the desire to enjoy things, the lust of the eyes, the desire to have things, and the vain glory of life, the desire to strut around and be somebody and thought to be somebody, is not of God, but is of the world.

62:18 And the world passes away and the lust thereof. But what's the contrast? He that does the will of God abides forever. God's will is set in direct antithesis to the world.

62:32 They are not coalescing. They are not commingled. The will of God and the world are set in opposition one to another. This is why James can say in James chapter 4, Hear these words, You adulteresses, don't you know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?

62:57 Friendship with the world is not Christian liberty. It's enmity with God. Hear the word of God, I beg of you. Hear the word of God.

63:08 Friendship with the world. its ways, its standards, its goals, its perspective on what is decent, its perspective on what is wholesome, on what is fun, its perspective on everything in life, divorced from and separate from the light of God's countenance and the regulation of God's law. Friendship of the world is enmity with God. Now listen.

63:37 whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So you come to the gate. I want God in Christ to be my friend. I want to come into the kingdom where God's controversy with me has ended.

63:58 No longer do I have to fear His wrath and His judgment for my sins. I want to know communion with Him. I want to know Him. As my friend, James says, you want to be the friend of God?

64:12 Then you and the world that have been walking arm in arm have got to have a radical divorce.

64:18 An irrevocable divorce. You got to say, oh world, I've had your wedding band on from the time I breathed my first. I'm a world in my nature. But now I see that this world system under the control of the devil that had me duped.

64:35 This world system with its goals, its standards in all areas of life is an enemy of the God with whom I now seek to be a friend and who invites me into his kingdom. Therefore, world, I'm serving you notice. You lick your fingers so the ring comes off real easy. And you throw it in the depths of the sea.

64:57 And from henceforth, you and the world are no longer chosen friends. Oh yes, there will be the remnants of elements of attachment to and the seduction of the world in your heart. This side of the gate, I understand that. I live with myself.

65:19 But it is not a willfully chosen companion. You've said to the world, goodbye, we're done. From henceforth, by the grace of God, I'm going to be part of that kingdom that is light. To this world.

65:37 That exposes its darkness. Exposes its deviousness. Exposes its heresy. That you've got to enjoy this.

65:47 And you've got to have this to have a full life. I'm going to demonstrate that in communion with God. And in a life of meticulous obedience to God. And in a life of utter devotion to God and His church and His people.

66:01 I have fullness of life. and you will then be light to this world that says, oh no, you've got to have your movie every Friday night to have fullness of life. You've got to circulate the latest CD of the latest pop group to have fullness of life. And you say, no world, I'm done with you.

66:20 I've found streams of living water. I've found Jesus to be true. He said if I'd come to Him, He'd give me a well of water bubbling up into everlasting life. I don't need the world's polluted streams of entertainment.

66:37 I have the pure streams of the water of life coming out from under the throne of God and of the Lamb. Hallelujah.

66:46 Now that's the rub for many of you in this second generation. You've got pressures from the world the likes of which I never knew when I was your age.

66:57 You do. you have all the media and you've got all the electronic technology and you act as though the devil is off on a vacation with regard to these things and he has no intention to use them to damn you. I'm serving you notice. He's out to damn you with them.

67:18 And if you are through the gate, he's out to cripple you by drawing you aside with their enervating influence upon the figure of your Christian life.

67:30 You want to be a friend of the world? You want worldlings to feel comfortable around you? You make yourself an enemy of God. I didn't say it.

67:39 God says it. Then at that gate, you must forsake from the heart the world and its ways as your chosen companion in life.

67:56 1952.

67:59 Do a little arithmetic.

68:03 Fifty-four years ago in January, the world and I had a fundamental divorce.

68:14 And I remember when the ring got thrown away. I don't know exactly when I got through the gate. I can't give you a day or a week. I can give you a time frame.

68:22 But that Thursday night in the winter, when I stood on the street corner there in Stamford, Connecticut, and faced the guys that used to open up holes in the line the season before in football, the fall before. And I looked these guys in the eye. They'd heard some things about Al Martin had gone crazy with religion. And they'd heard little dribs and drabs.

68:50 But that night, they saw the real thing. as I stood there with a little leather-bound New Testament in my hand and looked them in the eye and told them what Jesus had done for me.

69:04 It's like God came with a big pair of scissors. You know those big oversized ones they use when they're cutting the ribbon to open up a new store or a new bank? I felt like the Lord took the ribbon and cut them. And I was free.

69:19 And for 54 years, I've been a free man. But the issue was settled. You guys think I'm nuts? I don't care.

69:32 I go to bed at night with peace. My sins are forgiven. My Savior smiles. I know reality.

69:40 My Bible's a live book. Prayer is a living reality. Think of me what you will. I could care less.

69:47 And when the English teacher who had great ambitions for her, her prize pupil shook her head and said, What a waste that you're going into the ministry. It didn't ruffle my feathers one bit. She was a world thing. I kissed her goodbye that night too.

70:08 Are you free? Are you free? It's a wonderful freedom. It's a liberty.

70:15 to know that if I'm truly in the kingdom and living kingdom life, I'm going to be light to expose darkness and I'm going to get flack. Blessed are you. Perfectly happier you when men revile you. Save all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

70:31 Rejoice and be exceeding glad. Why? You're really on the road. Great is your reward in heaven.

70:37 This validates you through the gate and kiss the world goodbye. You're on the compressed way. You're on your way to life. have a glory fit and dance.

70:46 Is that what the Lord says? Rejoice in the exceeding glad. You're free.

70:52 See the problem? Some of you are not free. That's why there's so little spiritual joy in you. That's why witnessing comes so hard.

70:59 You can get excited about this movie. You can get excited about this CD. You can get excited about this musical group. You can get excited about who's got this boyfriend, who's got this...

71:09 You get excited about everything. You get excited about Jesus. You know why? you never got through that gate your soul is still soaked with the world and would God that God by the Holy Spirit would give you such a sight of the glory of Christ and the wonder of a sold out abandonment to him that you might enjoy the blessings of the kingdom for Paul says the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness peace joy in the Holy Ghost.

71:43 You ain't got much righteousness. You sure don't have much peace, so why would you have to be constantly feeding at the world's fountains? You don't have much joy in the Holy Spirit. Could it be you're not in the kingdom?

Conclusion: A Plea to Enter the Narrow Gate

71:59 You've got all the kingdom talk, and you've got enough of kingdom walk that you're respectable, but you've never known those realities. I plead with you. in the light of the things that God has sought to set before us or I have sought to set before you with the help of God. Hear the words of Jesus.

72:21 Enter the narrow gate. Don't be seduced by that easy and popular alternative of a wide gate of shallow profession, of easy Christianity with its broad way of no right-angled commitment to Christ in the life of holiness. A life of precise and meticulous obedience to Christ. Cheerful, cheerful separation from the world.

72:51 The gate is very narrow. Christ backs up and says, Oh, see how narrow is the gate? How compressed is the way that leads to life? Few there be that find it.

73:06 may God grant that you and I will be among the few by the grace of God let's pray our Father how we thank you for your word your word that comes to us with no uncertain voice speaking to us where we are describing us as we are and yet calling us to something more glorious and noble and wonderful. And oh, how we pray that your Spirit will so attend the word preached this day that ere some pillow their heads tonight, they will enter the narrow gate.

73:56 Gracious God, for the glory of Christ, do it, we pray. Amen.