Difficulties to Endure Along the Narrow Way, #1

Introduction: The Unmistakable Words of Christ on the Narrow Way

0:02 Now let us turn again this morning as we did Lord's Day morning and evening last week to the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 7.

0:21 And I read just verses 13 and 14.

0:27 Enter in by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby, for or how narrow is the gate, and how straightened or compressed or difficult the way that leads unto life, and few, and few are they that find it. Let us pray.

1:07 Lord Jesus, your words are simple.

1:14 They are blunt. They are right-angled. They are confrontational.

1:22 They are unmistakable in their either-or-ness. And we confess that by nature we have no affinity for the clear, for the blunt, for the unequivocally sharp lines drawn by your word. And so we pray that your Holy Spirit will overcome our native desire for some gray ground, for some DMZ of spiritual reality. Lord, drive from us all of our affinity for such things, and give us a heart to hear with delight and with faith and with obedience the saving words of our blessed Savior. Hear us, we pray, for our good and for your glory. Amen. Amen.

2:20 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:21 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:23 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:23 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:23 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:23 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:23 Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:42 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:43 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:43 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:44 Amen. Amen. still narrow is the way that leads to life still compressed and difficult is it yet true that that alternative of a wide gate and a broad and an easy way popular religious choice of the multitudes and is it yet true that that narrow gate and that compressed and difficult and pressured way is yet the way which few discover and are willing to enter and upon which to walk few questions should be of greater concern to us because it is none other than our lord jesus christ himself who speaks of the gate into the kingdom as a narrow gate and the way that leads to life as a compressed or a difficult way and surely he who came out of heaven in order to make a way to heaven would not be mistaken as to what you and i must do to enter heaven we preachers may bumble and

4:08 miss it but surely when jesus christ who came out of heaven in order to make a way into heaven

4:20 we must listen to the words of truth incarnate and in matthew seven thirteen and fourteen he tells us what we must do if we would get to heaven if we would enter life we must get through a narrow gate and must walk upon a compressed a difficult and a narrow way it is these words of our lord jesus that are the focal point of our study for a couple of lord's days last lord's day after sketching in the larger and the more immediate context of the words suffice it to say just this we noted from the larger and more immediate context that the great theme at this point in our lord's ministry was the theme of the kingdom of god he came preaching the kingdom of god saying the kingdom of god was at hand and the kingdom of god came this way

Review of Previous Points: Command, Warning, and Inseparable Relationship

5:20 God's reign of grace and power in the person of the king himself, the Lord Jesus. And in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, we have what is commonly called a manifesto of that kingdom, a declaration by the king himself of the major principles that mark this kingdom that he has come to establish in the hearts of men. And having done that, we then noted in our morning exposition three things. We saw, first of all, a gracious but regal command from Christ to enter the kingdom through the narrow gate.

6:01 It's a gracious imperative. Enter in by the narrow gate. I've told you all you need to know at this juncture about this kingdom that is near in my person and in my mighty works, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not content that you merely know about this kingdom.

6:20 I am deeply desirous that you actually enter it. And so he graciously but with regal authority gives this imperative, enter this kingdom, but only one way to enter, by means of getting through a narrow gate, a turnstile-like entrance into the kingdom where people can only go in one at a time. They can only enter one at a time. They can only go in stripped of all that would hinder their entrance.

6:50 They must be ready in the language of the parallel passage of Luke 13, 24 to strive, to agonize, to enter in by the narrow gate. And then we saw, secondly, that there is a gracious but regal warning to beware of the attractive and popular alternative to the narrow gate. No sooner does our Lord give the imperative to enter the narrow gate, but He gives a reason why He is so concerned to press this for. Because wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that are entering into that wide gate.

7:33 This is a gracious but regal warning, a warning to you and to me to beware of the attractive and popular alternative to the narrow gate. Right? And to beware especially, as He goes on to say in verse 15, beware of false prophets. Whether that false prophet is your own heart that would tell you, well, the gate really doesn't need to be quite so narrow.

8:00 And the way doesn't need to be quite so compressed. They are saved. They are in the kingdom. And while they live respectable lives, there's nothing really difficult and nothing radical about their kingdom lifestyle.

8:16 Shadowing. Surely, surely, the issues are not so right angled. Only a narrow gate and a compressed way leading to life. Or a wide gate and a broad way leading to destruction, to outer darkness, to the judgment of God in hell.

8:36 Jesus knows the human heart that standing before the narrow gate and facing with understanding the implications of passing through that gate, this would yearn for a wider gate and a broader way. And there are not lacking false spokesmen. Beware of the false prophet of our own.

9:04 The false prophet would tell us, oh, you can take Christ as Savior. You need to submit to it. You can trust Christ with the forgiveness of your sins. You need not be committed to a radical dealing with your remaining sins.

9:21 Oh, yes, you must give up the grosser manifestation and your motives. My friends, enter the narrow gate. But he gives this to beware of the attractive and popular alternative to the narrow gate and of anyone who would tell you that it's a gate in a way to life when he tells us it's a gate in a way to destruction. And then we saw thirdly, there is a gracious but regal insistence of this inseparable relationship between the narrow gate, the difficult, the compressed, the hard way, and the attainment. To the eternal life. Jesus together in an inseparable relationship. Narrow is the gate.

10:28 Difficult the way that leads unto life. Gateway life. You can't have the way without the gate. If you're through the gate, you're on the way.

10:39 And it's only getting through the gate and on the way that you enter into life at last. Jesus, who came out of heaven to make a way to heaven, says, that the way to heaven is the way of the gate and the compressed path,

10:59 and then it is life. Old Bunyan had it right. I've been rooting around in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress this week, and I said, I'm going to tell my people Sunday morning, we need to blow the dust off the dreams of the tinker of Bedford. Old Bunyan had it right.

11:17 And in that pictorial presentation of Pilgrim's Progress, and the title they gave to it, Dangerous Journey. And that's what it is. Old Bunyan had it right. There was a narrow gate, the wicked gate.

11:31 And there was this course of comfort and consolation. There are those when there is a company of others.

11:48 There are those who comes and instructs him. And there are time interpreters housed. There's Beulah to give a balance to. But at the end of the day, Bunyan had it right.

12:02 It's a narrow gate. It's a compressed and difficult and dangerous way. But bless God when they enter the river, and come up on the island, and come up on the other side. That description of heaven is breathtaking, as they enter into the presence of their Lord.

Baggage to Discard at the Narrow Gate

12:19 Well then, last evening, last Lord's Day evening, having established those three things right out of the text, I then address the baggage that you must discard if you are to enter the narrow gate. The baggage that you must discard, throw away, jettison, if you're to get through that narrow gate. And we looked at four suitcases that we had to get rid of. We must cast away from the heart the baggage of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency if we're to enter the gate.

12:56 We must cast away from the heart the baggage of self-governing principle. We must cast away the baggage of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of life. And we must cast away from the heart the baggage of the world and its way as our union in life. Now having addressed the baggage, we're to enter the narrow gate.

Meaning of Key Words: 'Way' and 'Straightened/Compressed'

13:20 My purpose in the remainder of the time this morning is to do this. To identify the difficulties we must reckon with if we are to walk on the compressed or narrow way. Having looked at the baggage that we must jettison from the heart if we're to enter the gate, now we're going to look at the difficulties we must reckon with if we're to walk on the compressed or narrow way. If we're to walk on the compressed or narrow way.

13:55 Now in opening up these crucial issues, I want you to consider with me first of all the meaning of the key words in the text. Look at the Bible. Enter in by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many are they that enter in thereby, for narrow and the older rise, the 1901, straightened is the way.

14:23 The newer translations are various. Difficult, straightened, is the way, the way that leads to destruction. Well the word translated the way is a standard Greek word used for a road, a natural path, travel. Remember when the Lord gave the parable of the sower and the soil, some falls upon the footpath.

15:01 That's the word in literal terms. A way, a path, a road is they will travel from one place to another. But then it's used often in scripture metaphorically, to refer to the way's path, a walking path. refer to a course or a pattern of conduct, a way of thinking, a way of acting. In other words, metaphorically, it means, in terms of what it is literally, it's earth upon which people trod frequently until it's obvious there is a path through a field, a path through the woods. You don't make a path by one trip through or one person. It's the frequent traversing over the same ground. Well, you see how metaphorically it comes to mean the frequent traversing of mental, moral territory. It becomes a way, a path. It refers to a course or pattern of conduct,

16:05 of acting, or of thinking. And obviously, that's the way in which the word the way is used in our text. But then the word translated in all these different ways, straightened, difficult, confined, hard. It's the verb phlebo, which means gospels that were pressing in upon our Lord. They were phleboing in upon him. But when it's used passively, which it is here for you Greek students, you have an aorist passive. No, I think a perfect passive of the verb phlebo. And it means to make something restricted or narrow. When something is pushed, it becomes narrow and compressed.

17:00 And that's the form in which we find it here. Jesus said you're to enter into the narrow gate and then you will enter upon a straightened, that is a compressed and oppressed, difficult way. And so it should not surprise us that this word in its noun form, phlipsis, is the standard word for oppression, affliction, tribulation, all the way through the testament. What is affliction, tribulation? It's pressured circumstances that squeeze in upon us and make us uncomfortable. So when the Lord said in his hearers ears, narrow is the gate and straightened, I think the best contemporary word is compressed is the way. And because it is compressed and hedged up, it is a difficult and a hard way. Remember the contrast. It's a hard way.

18:01 The contrast is with a wide gate and a broad with nice curves on either side. You can walk and admire the puffy cumulus clouds. You can whistle and you can daydream. There's no need of concentration. There's no real danger. It's a nice, big, wide, comfortable road. In contrast, there is a straightened way. There is a and difficult and danger, which alone leads to life. So then, as Jesus commands his hearers to enter the kingdom by the narrow turnstile of a deep and a thorough conversion in which all. So at outset, he informs them that once they enter the kingdom

19:02 through the narrow gate, they must live, which is. And Jesus made it plain at the outset. In other words, he doesn't simply talk about a narrow gate where baggage must be discarded. And then say, but lest I discourage my hearers from ever entering, I better not tell them about what will happen when they get through the gate. What they're going to meet is not a nice, big, broad, easy, smooth highway, but it's a narrow, compressed, restricted danger. Tell them that.

20:04 So the mind of our Lord Jesus, for the Lord Jesus knows if God is any of his listeners, so that they see there is. Nothing in the kingdom of this world, nothing that can bring true satisfaction now. And he told them that in the opening words of his manifest truth into the reality, happy are those who take

21:01 their sincerity. They more happy are those who instead of being full and they've got it all, they hunger and they thirst. The Lord has already told them there's nothing of lasting happiness and satisfaction. It's in the kingdom and being marked by these graces of the kingdom, by these features of the kingdom subject, which God, the Holy Spirit works in single one whom he is regenerating in whom he has taken out the heart of that can only damn them and destroy them in the process, leave them all empty and barren in this life. That issue has already been settled. And so Jesus knows I will not scare away such who've come to see reality as reality is in there. I will tell them on this outset, as I graciously,

22:19 and regally command them to enter the kingdom by the gate, that upon entering the kingdom through the narrow gate, they will plant their feet upon a compressed, a difficult, a pressured, but I will tell them that it leads to life. And like Bunyan's Christian, they've got their fingers in their ears crying, life, life and eternal at any cost. Rather, than eternal death. The meaning of the key words, I've set them before you. Now, secondly, I want to give you a statement of a vital principle, a statement of a vital principle. When Jesus graciously and regally commands his hearers, commands you and me as well, enter by the narrow gate and walk on a constricted, pressured, or difficult way in order to attain eternal life, and that's what he says. He is thereby making this vital principle very plain, and I want you to follow me carefully.

Vital Principle: The Way is an Extension of the Gate's Issues

23:39 What is the principle? It's this. The way that becomes the lifestyle of those who enter the kingdom is nothing more, but nothing less than an extension into the totality of life of the issues dealt with at the gate. of the issues dealt with at the gate.

24:00 of the issues dealt with at the gate. That's the principle. This way is nothing but an extension into the totality of life of the issues dealt with at the gate. In other words there is an organic relationship between the issues dealt with upon entering the kingdom and the living out of the lifestyle of the kingdom.

24:30 There's an organic relationship. There's an organic relationship. It's like the relationship relationship between that which is conceived in the mother's womb, which is brought forth in birth and is found in the 80-year-old man, thus conceived and born and lives to be an old man. There's an organic relationship.

24:54 You don't have a radical disparity between what was conceived and what was born and what was born and what now is at age 80. And so it is with the gate and the way and eternal life. There's an organic relationship. The issues which by the Spirit of God are reckoned with and dealt with at the gate become now the governing principles of the lifestyle of all who are in the kingdom, and the evidence they are in the kingdom is they are on this difficult and compressed.

25:33 This narrow, this restricted, this pressured way, which alone leads to life. This is very obviously stated in theological language by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 6. I want you to look for a moment at a verse that shows this organic relationship between the gate, the way, and life, not under the imagery of gate and way, but in the body, in the blunt theological language of the dominion of sin, of holiness of life, and the ultimate blessing of eternal life, Romans 6.22.

26:17 But now, having been made free from sin, that is, made free from sin's dominion, one of the pieces of baggage we throw away is our commitment to a willful, deliberate pattern and practice of sin. We are not rid of the presence of sin. We are not rid of the reality of remaining and indwelling sin this side of the gate. But at the gate, sin and you and I have a fundamental spiritual divorce.

26:48 That's what Paul has been establishing throughout all of Romans 6, and he says, but now, having been made free from sin, that is, sin's dominion, the willful, deliberate pattern and practice of sin in your life. Having been made free from sin. And having become slaves to God. The issue of the principle of self-will, self-government has been dealt with at the gate for you Romans.

27:17 He says, all of you, without exception, if you are true believers there at Rome, you have been made free from sin. You have become slaves to God. Now what's the next statement? You have, not you ought to have.

27:34 You may eventually have. Some of you who are super-duper, sold-out, extra-consecrated Christians have. No. Every single true Christian at Rome is one who has been made free from sin, become a slave to God in Christ, and is having his fruit unto sanctification.

27:57 In other words, his lifestyle is a lifestyle of separateness unto God. Sin in that separateness unto God is away from the direction of sin. Away from the direction of the world. He described it earlier in this chapter.

28:14 Just as he says, when sin was your master, you presented your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. So you now present your members instruments of righteousness unto God in a concrete, specific way. Throughout the course of the day. In the specifics.

28:33 In the specifics of your relationship to people and things and desires and attitudes, you are having fruit that is dominated by sanctification, holiness, separateness unto God, conformity to the law of God, growing conformity to the image of Christ. He said it's a reality in every single Roman Christian, without exception. Here's the gate. Free from sin, slaves to God.

29:02 Here's the way. Your fruit unto sanctification. Now look at the text. And the end, eternal life.

29:11 And the end, eternal life. In all of its consummate glory. In the new heavens and the new earth. In the presence of God and of the Lamb.

29:21 And all the company of his redeemed, now perfectly glorified, resplendent with reflecting the image of Christ from within and without. In glorified bodies and perfected spirits, do you see the three things that form the inseparable relationship of grace? They got through the gate. Free from sin, slaves of God.

29:46 They are on the way. They are having their fruit unto holiness. And the end for them is eternal life. And there's nothing missing in the three components.

29:59 Gate. Way. And life. Free from sin, slaves to God.

30:07 To holiness. And the end, eternal life. That's the principle. So that when we now come and can only begin this morning to address the specific realities of the way that make that kingdom lifestyle both difficult and unpopular, we just keep going back to the gate.

30:31 And we say, now what? What was dealt with at the gate? And when we focus upon what was dealt with at the gate, then we see what makes the way difficult. What makes the path constricted and pressured.

30:49 And we've got to do so, dear people, with the conviction this is not an extra special brand of humanity. This is life or death, heaven or hell. After leaving the gate, we have to do it again. This is life or death, heaven or hell.

31:02 After leaving the gate, we have to do it again. This is life or death, heaven or hell. Leave the question what. What makes this life so difficult?

Difficulty #1: Tenaciously Clinging to Christ Alone

31:09 When I've Yu tel, when I've José Machado, when I say even myself in this pulpit last Lord's day, attention, people. And if I'm going to stand as a substitute, Jesus said, a narrow gate, a pressured way, which alone lead to life. What then of the way, the kingdom lifestyle that makes it both difficult and unpopular. Well, first of all, it is the way of tenaciously clinging to Christ alone! What then does it do for us?

32:12 Well, the way of life can be at the scale of tensual sand! alone as the ground of our acceptance with God and as our strength to live a life pleasing to God. What was the first bit of baggage we addressed last week? You come up to that gate into the kingdom and what do we see stamped upon it? We see a cross standing next to it and stamped above it all who would enter must enter like the publican, stripped of any sense that I am anything, have anything, can do anything to commend myself to God. If I'm going to be marked with that first characteristic of kingdom subjects, I've got to be made poor in spirit. I've got to be brought to the place where the publican was brought. God, merciful to me, the sinner, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. I've got to

33:23 be stamped with the disposition of hungering and thirsting after righteousness, the recognition that I have neither the grace nor the power to live the life that I'm called to in the kingdom. I am utterly without that strength. I must try to God as I've been taught in that kingdom prayer, that I must seek daily my bread from God. I must seek daily the pardon of my sins. I must seek daily strength not to be led into temptation and to be delivered from evil. You see, that compressed way is but an extension of this first element that is dealt with at the gate. And if to enter the narrow gate, I must cast away from the heart all selfishness, all selfishness, all selfishness, all selfishness, all selfishness, all selfishness, all selfishness, all selfishness, all selfishness, self-righteousness, and self-sufficiency as the ground of my acceptance with God, I must cling tenaciously to Christ all along the narrow way with that same disposition and added to it

34:31 the recognition that that Christ who's now my Savior and my Lord is my strength to live the life to which I am called in the kingdom. And that's difficult. And that's pressured. Why? For the simple reason, dear people, that every one of us is a Pharisee by nature. We not only hate the law, we hate the gospel. We hate grace. Because when we cast ourselves upon grace and grace alone, then God and God alone gets the glory for the benefits of grace. And we have to acknowledge that we are utterly destitute of anything to come to God.

35:14 And we have to commend us to God now as we were that side of the gate. And so we must cling tenaciously to Christ. And this is why Paul could say in Romans 1, he was not ashamed of the gospel. Why? It was the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein is revealed a righteousness from God. Now notice what he says. From faith to faith. When I embraced that righteousness that is proffered to me in Jesus Christ, it is embraced by faith unto a life of ongoing faith in the same Savior and in the same sufficiency of His work. And therefore the

36:01 writer to the Hebrews can say in Hebrews 10, these very pointed words that address this very principle. Here are people that profess to have entered through the gate by trusting only in Christ, and they are being tempted to go back to Judaism, to trust in the rituals and the forms of the old covenant, and to turn away from Christ. And so he writes to them saying in Hebrews 10, 36, you have need of patience or endurance, that having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that cometh shall come and shall not tarry, but my righteous one, now notice, shall live by faith. And if you do not have faith, you will not be able to shrink back. My soul has no pleasure in Him. But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition, but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul, unto the gaining of the soul. Our initial faith becomes a principle of persevering faith, even unto the full salvation that is offered in Jesus Christ. And you see, there is everything in our remaining

37:14 sin, even as it operated when it was reigning sin, to keep us away from Christ and away from grace and away from going out of ourselves to trust only in the work of another. And though that sin does not reign, it still remains. This is the only reason why Paul ever had to write as he did to the Galatians. Doesn't it shock you when you realize here's churches founded by the Apostle Paul, and yet he has to write a relatively short time after he founded those churches, Galatians 1.6. I marvel. You are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel. And what was that different gospel? Christ is not enough. Paul told you at the gate, abandon all confidence in what you've ever done, in what you've done, in what you've done, in what you've done, in what you've done, you've ever possessed in what you ever think you can do and throw yourself upon Christ and Christ alone embrace him in the naked embrace of saving faith nothing in your hands to bring and these people came along and said Christ is fine as far as he'll take you but to be a completed Christian

38:37 you need circumcision you need kosher dietary dietary laws you need Jewish feast days and fast days you need to become kosher Jews to be full and Paul had to write further and say in chapter three in verse one oh foolish Galatians who bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified and then he goes on to ask them questions how did all your spiritual blessings come to you to the works of the law or the hearing of faith as they came to you so they remained with you they came to you in the empty-handed embrace of faith they remain with you in the ongoing empty-handed embrace of faith even unto the end that's a difficult way you find the first gathering of the apostles to settle a doctrinal issue Acts 15 what was it this very issue this very issue some people had come down from the Judea area to Antioch we would say up to Antioch they say down to Antioch and we're teaching people that unless you're circumcised keep the law of Moses you can't be saved and they have to thrash out this issue no we like them shall be saved by the

39:55 grace of God and so it's a narrow compressed way because there's everything within us in our remaining sin that has an antipathy to grace to going out of self and into Christ and Christ alone and what is true not only of the basis of our acceptance with God is also true of our strength and our ability to live Kingdom life number what Jesus said in John 15 and theühren where the branches die honey and I and you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself severed from the vine so neither can you apart from me we're apart from the severed from me you can do what nothing nothing hence all can say in Colossians 3 for when Christ who is our God justifies our not chosen architectural portion so you and your fears of God all we need to do now the kingdom life value the promise of being crucified in Christ so let's remember that the one that gets Goddess completelyłemscene like her conception of the secrets it was the ruled of theunden the Cross her White Cross her Holy Spirit were the divine concl gather I stand and worship in the name of Jesus which he gives in proszę going to said to be He is our very life. Lifestyle is Christ-empowered lifestyle. That's why Paul could say, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, if not I, but Christ lives in me.

41:06 And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. As I came to the confidence of forgiveness of sin by faith in Christ alone, so I live this life by faith in Christ alone. He is my life. He is my strength.

41:31 He is the vine. I am but a branch. And that's what makes the life difficult, because our remaining sin not only wants to go somewhere else for acceptance with God, it wants to go to something else for strength to live kingdom life that is well-pleasing to God. It's humbling to have to say, Lord Jesus, unless you by your Spirit empower me to be a husband who loves my wife as Christ loved the church, I'll treat her at best like some kind of a hired slave, or at worst, I'll treat her like...

42:15 Lord! Lord, what's in me? But, Lord Jesus, you love the church. You gave yourself for the church.

42:25 You live to nourish and cherish the church. And, Lord Jesus, you live in me by the Spirit. Lord Jesus, you can empower me to so love my wife that when people see me relate to her, they will say, that must be a little bit the way Jesus loves his church. And if you aren't, you're not on the narrow road.

43:39 Blood. Language, isn't it?

44:24 Like men take sticks, so you'll be thrown in the fire. So you can lose yourself through the gate. You never got through the gate. And it's manifested in the way you relate to your wife, the way you relate to your kids, the way you relate to a host of other things.

44:46 That's why it's a hard way. It's a difficult way. Because there is everything in us that would move us in an opposite direction. From clinging to Christ as our life.

44:58 From appropriating Him. As our life. And as our strength.

45:04 But it is the kingdom lifestyle. It's the Christ-trusting lifestyle. The Christ-in-Christ-abiding lifestyle. That's the lifestyle of those who come through the kingdom and are on their way to eternal life.

Difficulty #2: Serious Pursuit of Universal Obedience to Christ's Will

45:22 But then I have just a second, and that's all I'm going to touch on this morning. The second characteristic of that way that constitutes the kingdom lifestyle, is this. It is the way of the serious pursuit of universal obedience to the will of Christ as embodied in the words of Christ. It is the way of serious pursuit.

45:49 The serious pursuit of universal obedience to the will of Christ as embodied in the words of Christ. Remember the second piece of luggage? What was it? Not only...

46:03 We must, we forsake, cast off from the heart, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency as the ground of our acceptance with God. But we must cast off from the heart self-will, self-government as the governing principle of our lives. We demonstrated from the scriptures that that is the governing principle of every person outside the gate of the kingdom. We have turned every one of us to his own way.

46:37 2 Corinthians 5.15 We live unto ourselves. But Paul says when we have embraced what Christ has done for sinners and have entered the gate, we no longer live unto ourselves, but unto Him who for our sakes died and rose again. An entirely new, radically different focus and principle of governing our lives.

47:04 No longer self, but Christ. Christ's initial requirement to be His disciple has been embraced from the heart. If any man will come after me, let him say no to himself. Self-government, self-fulfillment, self-will, self-adulation.

47:27 All that focuses upon me. It's jettisoned from the heart. And He is embraced. He is embraced as the focal point of my life.

47:38 And though I will struggle with the remnants of that remaining disposition until I cross the river and enter His presence, the issue has been dealt with that I'm now committed to the serious pursuit.

47:55 Not a half-hearted pursuit. A serious pursuit. You know what a serious pursuit is? You're going after something until you get shot in going after it or you get it.

48:07 That's a serious pursuit.

48:10 I've got it in my crosshairs and I'm going after it. Like I said to someone at one time on a given issue where we were talking about what it is to be committed to principle, that if I know my path is biblical, I'm not naturally a courageous person. I'm very timid natively by temperament. But if I know my path is cut by my Bible and I'm moving in that path, you may stand ten feet away with a .44 Magnum, aim it right between my eyes, and pull the trigger, and I'm going to fall in your direction and spatter my blood on you on the way down.

48:48 If I'm convinced I should come after you, I'm coming. That's serious pursuit.

48:56 You thought you weren't going to hear illustrations about Dorothy anymore. But she's not here, so I can use one.

49:03 When I was told by one of her sons to slow down in my pursuit of her, I said, No way. I'm going after her for real. She wasn't number one with a list. She was number one with a list of two or three.

49:16 And the first time she gives me a less than, come some more look, I'll just turn around and turn tail and goes, No, sir. No, sir. I was persuaded. Serious.

49:28 You know all about it. You who were around me and had to put up with me. Serious pursuit of universal obedience. And what do I mean by that?

49:37 An obedience that doesn't pick and choose. An obedience that is universal in its intention. That's going to take justice. Seriously.

49:48 The word of Christ that touches thoughts that no one knows about but God and me. As words that touch my words and my actions that can be seen and heard by the world. A serious pursuit of universal obedience. An obedience that is touching my thoughts, my motives, my attitudes, my dispositions, my deeds and thoughts.

50:15 Public, private. It matters. It matters not. It's universal obedience to the will of Christ.

50:21 Now listen carefully. As embodied in the words of Christ.

50:27 Not universal obedience as embodied in what I feel after I've prayed about something. I get sick and tired of people saying, well, I've prayed about this.

50:40 And then they tell you what they believe they ought to do that is contrary to the words of Christ. No. It is a kingdom. It is a kingdom lifestyle marked by serious pursuit of universal obedience to the will of Christ as embodied in the words of Christ.

51:01 And where this casting away of self-will from the heart is real. It will always issue in walking on this compressed, this narrow, this difficult, flesh-withering way of serious obedience. Universal obedience to the will of Christ is embodied in the word of Christ. Now how can I prove that from the Bible?

51:26 Very easy. I'm embarrassed with the riches.

51:31 Let me give you six or seven texts. Remember at the end of Matthew when Jesus gave the great commission? What did he tell the apostles to do? And I remind you this commission is not given to every individual Christian.

51:45 It's given to the apostles. And through the apostles it is the commission. It is the commission of the church. And the church fulfills it in terms of how Christ gives gifts to his church to perform the various functions of the commission.

52:04 Verse 19. Going therefore make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things. Whatsoever I commanded you. And what's our Lord saying?

52:27 He's saying when you have made disciples by the preaching of the gospel, and the Holy Spirit owns that proclamation with power, regenerate sinners, enabling them to throw away the baggage that must be thrown away, and enter the gate of true conversion, and come into the way of kingdom life, the assumption, the assumption is they are planted in that way with a heart that wants to know and do whatsoever Christ has commanded. You see it in the text? Make disciples, not persuading them that eventually if they get consecrated and surrendered enough that they might consider taking seriously. No, no, no such nonsense. Make disciples, baptize them. Now teach them to observe.

53:21 Observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. And the assumption is the true disciple now bonded to Christ as his Savior and his Lord. He wants to know and in the strength of Christ to do whatever Christ commands. All things whatsoever, comprehensive language, universal obedience.

53:49 And Jesus said, That's not just a noble idea. All that is ra pore, right here where we are being able to understand, lotally, It's the work of the Holy Spirit being done. He said it is. He said it is.

54:03 It is. It is. It is. He said that we have been formed in this life.

54:11 Every single part of the world, even theי I of faith, the vast majority of the world, is lowering heaven's fallen into water for the strength of Christ's activates. Every heaven will come into being for the glory of Christ. poss carve pieces in the divine life. And I know them, and they are, another present tense, they are following me.

54:36 And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of my hand. And Lord, who are those so enveloped by your protection and your power that nothing can snatch them out of your hand? He said, they're my sheep.

54:55 Well, Lord, am I one of them? And he says, well, it's easy to know. Do you hear as a pattern of life my voice? And hearing, do you follow me?

55:08 Do my words regulate your volitional choices? Even when it means walking over the belly of your lust? Even though it means resisting all of the tendencies of your disposition? All of the patterns ingrained from your background and your upbringing?

55:26 And your... Your dysfunctional home, it does...

55:30 When you hear my... In my strength...

55:49 Are you following... Are the possessors...

55:55 And only such. Hebrews 5 and verse 9. Just trying to demonstrate that this narrow way, this compre-cult way is as embodied in the words of Christ. Matthew 28, John 10.

56:17 Now we come to Hebrews 5. Setting forth the glory of thy priest. We read of our Lord Jesus...

56:28 Who in the days... Having offered up prayers...

56:38 And having been heard for his God... Though he was...

56:45 Yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been made perfect. That does not mean having been made morally perfect. He was that.

56:55 While separate from sinners. But having been perfected into a position.

57:06 Having been made... He became obeying the author of eternal self.

57:15 Lord Jesus. To what end? The groans.

57:24 The bloody sweat of... Seminy.

57:27 Lord Jesus. To what shame.

57:52 For a vast multitude of sinners out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation. Lord Jesus. How can such sinners be identified? He says.

58:05 They obey me.

58:08 Their obedience procured.

58:12 But my... My obedience.

58:25 But in the application of their willing bonds.

58:52 Not all. But the text.

59:05 The author of eternal salvation. And if you're not obeying him. As a pattern of life. No matter how difficult it is.

59:13 You have no grounds to say Christ has procured your salvation. There it is, folks.

59:22 And we come to 1 John.

59:25 As I say.

59:29 I do exercise.

59:39 My little children. The answer to you that you may not see. The passion of the heart of every true Christian is to be sinless. But then John the Realist says.

59:49 If any man sin. There's the realism. We have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous.

59:55 He is propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only. But for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we know that we know him.

60:04 If we can testify in glowing language. Of how much we are thankful. That Jesus is propitiation for our sins. And that we're trusting only in Jesus.

60:14 For the forgiveness of sins. Hereby do we know that we know him. If we can point to him and say. He is my propitiation.

60:23 That comes later in 1 John. But that in what it says here. Hereby we know. That we know him.

60:29 If. If. If. We are keeping.

60:33 Present tense. His commandments. He that says. Oh I know him.

60:38 And is not keeping his commandments. Is not committed to a life of earnest. Sincere. Serious.

60:47 Pursuit of universal obedience. The person who says I know him. And is not keeping his commandments. Is a liar.

60:56 And the truth is not in him. The truth is not in him.

60:59 We've got some liars here this morning. I'm afraid we have. You say you know him.

61:07 But you're not marked. By walking in that narrow. Constricted. Compressed.

61:13 Difficult way. The way of a sincere. Serious pursuit. Of universal obedience.

61:22 To the will of Christ. As embodied in the words of Christ. For now we come to John 14. 21.

61:29 He who has my commandments. Keeps them. He it is that loves me. John 15.

61:36 14. You are my friends. If you do whatsoever. I command you.

61:42 Matthew 12. In verse 50. Here is my mother. And my brothers and sisters.

61:46 Those who hear the word of God. And keep it.

61:52 Word which is the word of scripture. Of the old and the new testaments. All of the precepts. Properly understood.

62:00 In their context. And in their place of redemptive. History. All of them are the voice of Christ.

62:09 Many of them are not easy. Think of the sermon on the mount. To love my enemies. Pray for those that despitefully use me.

62:16 And to have a disposition of non-retaliation. He that smites me on one cheek. To turn the other. I'm to look upon sinful anxiety.

62:27 As just that. It's just as much a command. Be not anxious as it is. Do not commit adultery.

62:33 You should do no murder. Am I serious. In taking these commands. That run counter to everything I am.

62:41 As a son or daughter of Adam. And even though sin has been dealt a death blow. In my union with Christ. And its dominion has been broken.

62:51 Its remains are such. That with Paul I cry wretched man. That I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death.

62:59 I find then a law. That to me who would do good. Evil is present with me. I've embraced him.

63:15 Only with his cross. I'll show my love by being obedient to his command. In the overal. My yoke is easy.

63:30 And my burden is light. The devil. The thief who comes to see the yoke. John says his.

63:45 But they are. Some of them difficult. The way of purlin Paul did. Like a man who's himself in my body.

64:00 Lest in preaching to others I might reprobate. Cause he went back through. Many flimses. Many press.

64:29 He says you got through the gate and you're on the way. I got news. I'm. In.

64:48 The words of Christ. It's not easy. Something that is clearly sin. It shouldn't be covered with a blanket of love.

65:00 Jesus says. Your brother's sin. Go tell him his fault. Between you and him alone.

65:05 How often as I've had to do it. It's as hard. The next time as it ever was. The first time.

65:15 You come. Leave your gift at the altar. Come to worship. And you know there's something not right between you and your brother.

65:22 Leave your gift before the altar. First go. to your brother, then coming off to your...

65:26 That's hard. Just read through the Sermon on the Mount. And you say, there's very little that's easy in here. But it's the words of Christ.

65:36 And Jesus completes the Sermon. And I want you to see this last text before I make two areas of specific application in closing.

65:45 Notice the last words.

65:48 Jesus concludes His manifesto of the kingdom with these words. Everyone, therefore, verse 24, that hears these words of mine and does them as a pattern of life, not perfectly, but purposefully, universally, he shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blow, beat upon the house, it fell. Not, it was founded on the rock.

66:16 Everyone who hears and does not do them shall be likened unto a foolish man. And you know the rest of the story. Jesus said your religious profession will stand the floods of judgment only if it's found you on the narrow way of the serious pursuit of universal obedience to the will of Christ as embodied in the words of Christ.

Application: Marriage for the Rising Generation

66:46 I'm deeply concerned about the rising generation. You know that. It's been coming out a lot in my preaching. And I want to touch just briefly.

66:54 I know I forgot what time it was, but bear with me. My times to say these things are numbered. I want to speak to you of the rising generation who are not yet married.

67:09 And I think one of the greatest difficulties you're going to face is taking the words of Christ seriously regarding romantic interest, the desire for and the pursuit of marriage. Now, there are two texts of Scripture in which Jesus is spoken very clearly through the Apostle Paul to every one of you. The first is 2 Corinthians 6.14 that says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

67:32 God clearly forbids us from being the marriage of an unbeliever to a believer. If both are unbelievers and God saves one and not the other, 1 Corinthians 7 says, The marriage is still valid. Don't disrupt it if you can maintain it. If the unbeliever says, I don't want anything to do with this strange person that now talks about God and all the rest and leaves, the believer's not bound.

67:54 All right? So here's principle number one, the negative. Don't even think. The moment you feel the slightest twitch of any level of attraction to anyone of the opposite sex that is the attraction of a boy and a girl and don't talk to me about, oh, we're just friends.

68:12 What a bunch of baloney. You get a single guy and a single gal of marriageable age, sooner or later you ain't just friends. Okay? Some of us, you think we were born yesterday.

68:25 You try to con us.

68:28 You'll never marry them if you don't let your heart go out to them. So the first twinges. Take 2 Corinthians 6.14 and write, read it out, stick it on your mirror, memorize it, pray it in, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

68:44 If I don't let my heart go out, I won't let my finger go out to have a ring put on it. I won't end up in a honeymoon bed. There'll be no unequally yoked. This is settled.

68:55 All right? That's relatively easy. But later on, or back in the first letter, when Paul is talking about singles and men giving their virgin daughters a vest, he says these words, she is free to marry whom she will only in the Lord. Now, to whom should you allow your heart to even begin to go out to?

69:18 To begin to establish anything that could be called even the first steps of courtship. Someone who is clearly, unmistakably, as best as human judgment can discern in the Lord. Now here's the point. Follow me closely.

69:32 According to the New Testament, you know what defines in the Lord? A proven commodity. A proven commodity in the church.

69:43 Well, we say, Pastor Mark, where do you get that? Okay, you ask me, I'll tell you. You turn to Acts. This is the last passage we're going to look at.

69:50 Acts chapter 11. Barnabas is sent to Antioch. They hear that God's doing a work there. Verse 21 of Acts 11.

70:02 The hand of the Lord was with them. Great number that believed turned to the Lord. And so Barnabas comes and sees the grace of God and was glad, exhorted them to cleave to the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit.

70:16 Verse 25. He went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came to pass, even for a whole year, they were gathered together with the church and taught much people.

70:29 And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now I want you to see the conjunction of two verses in this passage. You'll notice that, under the preaching of the gospel, there was the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Verse 24.

70:50 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and much people was added unto the Lord. Now how did they know the people were added to the Lord? Isn't that a secret, invisible working of the Holy Spirit when He takes out the heart of stone, imparts a heart of flesh, gives the gifts of repentance and faith, and people come through? Isn't that a secret, invisible working of the Holy Spirit?

71:14 Through the narrow door, to be added to the Lord is a spiritual experience.

71:21 ...added to the Lord, because we read in two verses away.

71:27 And it came to pass that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church.

71:37 The Lord became known as added to the Lord when they were added to the church. When they came not only through the narrow door by secret spiritual experience, but the visible, credible profession.

72:08 Can you expound? It means that you are determined to obey the word of Jesus Christ. And you will not allow yourself.

72:56 I know it's something other than a narrow way. There are some women in this church who from the human side,

73:14 they're on the narrow road.

73:17 They are coming to the word regarding the possibility of marriage and the principles that must regulate anything approaching, even the beginning of a relationship, let alone entering into courtship. The hard road. But remember where it goes. Because the time is coming when they shall no longer marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God.

73:56 I'm going to love Marilyn and Dorothy with a deep sisterly love in a way that I can't conceive of now, but I ain't going to be married to either of them. And I'm excited about it. To think I can love both of them more and more purely than I ever have done. That doesn't make me go off and have a pity party.

74:18 And I say to some of you precious young women and some of you young men, if you're committed to this, you may feel the pain of a lengthy period of singleness. Feed your soul with the reality. Time is coming when I'll have all my brothers as my husband, in the sense that I will know levels of pure, exalted, intense love that I could never known if one of them was my husband here on earth. And look forward to the end.

74:48 After that difficult road. Look to the end. Look to the end. Look to the end.

74:55 Remember the corruption that led to the flood. The Holy Ghost highlights what? Mixed marriages. That's what it says.

75:08 Sons of God, sons of men. What happened in the exile that had to be cleaned up before God would, as it says, re-identify himself with his people in the land. They had to deal with the mixed marriages. What will be one of the curses of Trinity Church?

75:26 It will be right here. And some of you will be tempted to run off somewhere else, that if you raise your hand, pray a prayer, and don't cuss and drink and chase around, you can be regarded as a Christian. You'll be so desperate to be married, you'll violate the principle in the Lord. In the Lord.

75:45 May God help you in that point that is so crucial, to go the way of serious pursuit of universal obedience to the will of Christ. As embodied in the word of Christ. Thank you for being patient with me. This was a burden that I laid upon me in the early hours of the morning as a specific application of this second element of the narrow way.

Conclusion: The Blessed End of the Difficult Way

76:12 Let's pray. Our Father, we acknowledge that left to ourselves, our flesh would desperately want to widen the gate and broaden the way. But we thank you for the faithfulness of our Savior, to mark out the way as narrow, difficult, and compressed. But we thank you it's a blessed way, for in it we know the fellowship of our Savior, and the fellowship of those who are fellow travelers.

76:43 And we thank you for the prospect of the end to which it leads. Seal then your word to our hearts, for the sake of each one of us and our good and for your glory. Amen.