Difficulties to Endure Along the Narrow Way, #3

Introduction and Series Review: The Narrow Way and Discarded Baggage

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, October 15, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Those who regularly attend upon this ministry know that I've been in the midst of a series of studies on the grand doctrine of justification by faith alone, paying little attention to the so-called noose perspective but seeking to set forth a genuine item before our people. We've had 14 such studies and there'll be probably another 7 or 8 but for several reasons in the midst of that series I've digressed to turn to Matthew chapter 7 to which portion I now invite you to turn

0:48 Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.

1:01 Coming toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount, to what the rhetoricians would call our Lord's peroration, when He is no longer concerned primarily with instructing the mind, but appealing to the will of his hearers. He says, Enter in by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For, or how narrow is the gate, and how compressed or difficult the way that leads unto life.

1:47 And few, and few are they that find it. Let us again pray asking God the Holy Spirit to come and own the preaching of His Word. Holy Father we know you are not weary when we come to you with the sincere desire to be heard in the court of heaven while you abominate mere lip service and the drawing near with lips while hearts are far from you we thank you you delight when with the heart your people cry out in their felt need And Lord, that's our portion and our posture.

2:33 As we recognize we can receive nothing except to be given us from heaven. And so we pray that your Spirit will come upon preacher and listener alike, that together we may be conscious that you are in our midst in the preaching of your holy word. Do us good, Lord. Whatever you know, that good is that we most need.

2:59 Do it for us. For your praise we ask it. Amen.

3:08 Well, we come this morning to the fifth exposition and application of this portion that I've read in your hearing that is both on the one hand an amazingly gracious, and on the other hand profoundly searching and disturbing portion of the Word of God. And with a special regard for those of you who were not here for the previous four expositions, I'm going to attempt to condense into a review of 15 minutes, the distilled essence of more than four hours of exposition and application. So, forgive me while my eyes stay relatively glued to my paper, because if I get them away from it, this stuff is going to draw out the preacher and is going to swallow up the clock.

4:05 Where have we been with this portion of the Word of God? Well, in the first message, I sought to sketch in the larger context in which we find it. Our Lord's preaching of the kingdom was central to this portion of his Galilean ministry. We find that in Matthew 4.17 and Matthew 4.23.

4:27 In the immediate context then is what has often been called the manifesto of the kingdom, the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5 through 7. And in those chapters our Lord is describing this kingdom that he has been preaching. He gives this beautiful picture of the character traits of all the members of that kingdom in what we call the Beatitudes. He goes on to demonstrate that in that kingdom the law of God regulates the thinking and the life of all of its subjects.

4:58 The law in all of its breadth and all of its searchingness, touching not only external actions but motives and desires and looks and words. And then goes on to demonstrate that in that kingdom, religious activities such as prayer and giving and fasting are not done with a view to receiving the praise of men, but they are done with a view to the approbation of God. The Father's eye is the great concern for the subjects of the kingdom. And because those subjects must live in the real world of clothing and food and stuff, Our Lord tells them that coming into his kingdom, the living God himself is committed to supply all of those needs and that they are not to set their heart upon things and stuff, but to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness in the confidence that their loving father will add all needful things to them.

5:56 And then in chapter 7, he addresses some other vital matters of life within the kingdom. A life in which all the true members of the kingdom are far more concerned about their own sins than the sins of others. A kingdom in which they can be confident they have a loving Father who delights to give them what they ask. Well, having sketched in those various aspects of this kingdom which he has been preaching, Our Lord is not content that His hearers merely know new things about the kingdom.

6:32 He is desirous that they actually enter the kingdom. And so in verse 13 of chapter 7, we have these words, 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. And so I sought to demonstrate that here in these words there are at least three things set before us by our Lord. First, a gracious but regal command from the King of Grace to enter the kingdom through the narrow gate, which is simply a metaphor for experiencing radical biblical conversion.

7:18 real deliverance from the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Satan and real translation into the kingdom of light and the kingdom of grace. Secondly, he gives a gracious but regal warning. The king of grace does to beware of an attractive and popular alternative to the narrow gate. No sooner does he say, enter in by the narrow gate, but that he gives a warning.

7:48 Wide is the gate, broad is the way, it leads to destruction. And it's the popular way. The Lord knows that the moment people begin to think that entering the kingdom is like pressing through a narrow turnstile, one at a time, stripped of every excess bit of baggage that would keep from that entrance, that they would look for an alternative. And he says the alternative will always be there.

8:15 There will always be a wide gate. And it issues in to a very broad way. And it's the popular way. I warn you, when I tell you, enter the narrow gate, there will always be this alternative.

8:29 And I solemnly, graciously warn you. And then thirdly, we have a gracious but regal insistence from the king about two things. Number one, the inseparable relationship between the gate, the way, and life. Our Lord says, narrow is the gate, compressed, straightened, difficult the way that leads unto life.

8:56 None will come to the consummate blessings of eternal life, except they get there by this compressed or difficult way. And none are found upon the compressed or difficult way, but those who get through the narrow gate. There is no way to eternal life but by the gate and by the way. Our Lord sets them before us as inseparable spiritual realities.

9:25 And the second thing he tells us is the rarity of those who thus enter that narrow gate and walk upon that difficult and compressed way. few there be that find it. The broad way and the wide gate stand so accessible, many go in, they don't need to look for it. It will always be there, and I believe in the context.

9:54 It's the way of cheap religion, external religion, Pharisaic religion. That's the context in which our Lord speaks, and that alternative that never touches the heart, that has a gate at which we need not unpack anything, just subscribe to a few tenets of belief, and then become respectable like the Pharisees were. They appear outwardly beautiful unto men, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones and all excesses. Well then, in the second message, I sought to identify the baggage that must be cast away if we're to get through the narrow gate and using the Sermon on the Mount

10:40 as the primary passage of reference and I can only give you the heads and give you none of the scriptural support. If we would get through that narrow gate we must cast away from the heart the baggage of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency as the ground of our acceptance with God. Secondly, we must cast away from the heart the baggage of self-will as the governing principle of our lives. Thirdly, we must cast away from the heart the baggage of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of our lives.

11:21 And fourthly, we must cast away from the heart the world and its ways as our chosen companion and molding influence of our lives. And then in the third and fourth messages, I sought to begin to identify the characteristics of the way that make it a narrow, compressed, or difficult way. Having examined the baggage that must be discarded to enter the narrow gate, we then began to consider what are the things in the way that make it a compressed, a pressured, a difficult, a narrow way. And I've been operating with this basic principle that the narrowness, the difficulty of the way is nothing other than an extension into the totality of life of the issues reckoned with at the gate.

12:22 In other words, there's an organic relationship between what you unpack and discard and throw away at the gate, and the life that we are to live, the kingdom lifestyle, which is the compressed, the difficult, the narrow way, which alone leads to life. So then, if the first bit of baggage to be discarded at the gate is all our self-righteousness and self-sufficiency as the ground of our acceptance with God, The narrow, the compressed, the difficult way is walking through life with the death grip of a persevering faith in Christ alone.

13:10 As our ground of acceptance with God and the source of our strength to live a life well pleasing to God. And again, I can't take the many scriptures to demonstrate that this is how kingdom life is described and how difficult it is with the pressures from our own remaining sin and from a wily devil in a seductive world constantly seeking to pull us away from that naked-handed death grip of persevering faith in Christ alone as the ground of my acceptance with God and the source of my strength to live a life pleasing to God. Secondly, if at the narrow gate there is the repudiation from the heart of self-will

13:58 as the governing principle of life, the compressed, the narrow, the difficult way is the way of a sincere pursuit of a life of universal obedience to Christ as His will is revealed in His Word. If I have repudiated living unto myself, henceforth saying, Lord Jesus, as I enter the gate, I've been bought with a price. I am committed to live unto You. The narrow way is the serious pursuit of a life of universal obedience.

14:37 Not partial, not convenient, universal obedience to the will of Christ as revealed in the word of Christ. And then thirdly, if at the gate there is truly a repudiation from the heart of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of life, then the narrow road, the compressed way, will be marked by the serious pursuit of a life of universal holiness in heart and in practice. If I truly said I'm done with sin, I see it in its ugliness, I see it in its damnable nature, I see it in its horrible revelation when I view it in connection with my Savior upon the cross.

15:34 I'm committed to deal with sin, any sin, wherever I find sin. Then the way is difficult because it's the way of seriously pursuing a life of universal gospel holiness. Universal gospel holiness. Not partial, but it's gospel holiness drawing all of its motivation from the grace of God that encountered me at the gate and from the dynamics of that grace as I am united to Christ and indwelt by the Spirit.

16:11 But it's my serious pursuit, even to the gouging out of right eyes, cutting off of right hands, the hacking off of a right foot. It is serious.

16:29 Serious. not casual not cavalier I've got a few besetting sins we all sin no no I look upon every sin as my mortal enemy in the language of John Owen I'm persuaded either I will kill sin or sin will kill me for if you live after the flesh you must die but if you by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh you shall live well so much for the review I got it in in 17 minutes. Now then, we come this morning to that fourth element of the compressed, of the narrow, of the restricted way that makes it such a difficult way. And what is it?

The Fourth Difficulty: Nonconformity and Separation from the World

17:15 We'll go back to the gate. The fourth bit of baggage that's discarded from the heart at the gate is what? It is the world as my chosen companion and molding influence in life. I've been a part of this world system, and we shall see subsequently what I mean by that.

17:37 We've been enmeshed in it. We breathed its air We subjected ourselves to its influence in thought in desires in associations in evaluations of what is innocent fun of what is innocent conversation of what is innocent recreation We have been worldlings through and through into the very subsoil of our being. There at the gate, recognizing that this kingdom into which we are invited is a kingdom not of this world. Its standards come down from heaven as the king came out of heaven.

18:19 You are not of this world as I am not of this world. When did we get extracted? At the gate. when from the heart we repudiate the world as our chosen companion and molding influence in life.

18:36 And if that's so, then what is the difficulty of the way in connection with that? It's just this. It is the difficulty of a serious pursuit of increasing nonconformity to the world and separation from the world as the molding influence upon the totality of my life. And that's what makes it a difficult and a compressed way.

19:10 If I have truly discarded the baggage of the world, then I am now placed by the power and grace of God, but at the level of my conscious spiritual desires, that in the totality of life, that world system that held me in its grip, that world system that shaped and molded my thinking, my desires, my relationships, my activities, that more and more I will know what it is to live a life of nonconformity to the world, a life in which my thinking, my desires, and my associations will reflect true, real separation from that world.

Defining 'The World' as an Ungodly, Devil-Controlled System

20:03 Now, I begin then in trying to demonstrate this from the Scriptures by a definition, a description of what I mean by this particular use of the word world. The word world is used in a variety of ways in the Old and New Testaments. However, in the major texts that we will examine this morning, and God willing another three or four of them next Lord's Day, what I would call the epitomizing text of the Bible doctrine of worldliness and where the true believer is in relationship to it, these major texts find the use of two Greek words, I own in cosmos, I own age, this age, and cosmos, this world.

20:50 And what do we mean? What does the Bible mean when it uses it in the way that I'm using it this morning? Well, one commentator, D. Edmund Hebert, in his commentary on James, describes it this way.

21:04 The world is the mass of unredeemed humanity as an egocentric world system that is hostile to God. It is the mass of unredeemed humanity as an egocentric, self-centered world system that is hostile to God. David Jackman, the world is an organized system of human civilization and activity which is opposed to God and alienated from him. That's in his commentary on 1 John.

21:43 Douglas Moo in his commentary on James. The world is a common biblical way of referring to the ungodly worldview and lifestyle that characterizes human life in its estrangement from its creator. The world is a common biblical way of referring to the ungodly worldview and lifestyle that characterizes human life in its estrangement from the creator. Robert Johnstone, in his excellent commentary on James, writes, The world, as often used in Scripture, particularly in the writings of the Apostle John, designates the men and the things here below regarded as pervaded and controlled by the great evil spirit

22:37 whom Jesus himself called the prince of this world. So it is not just man in his estrangement from God, but man being controlled by the devil. Paul could say you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is presently actively working among the sons of disobedience. Behind a worldly view of entertainment is the devil.

23:13 Behind a worldly view of what constitutes modest dress is the devil. Behind a worldly view of what is innocent entertainment lurks the sinister power of the devil. Behind what is legitimate ambition for recreation and for avocation and for a little bit of ease. Behind the world's view is a sinister devil who hates God, who hates his son, who hates the people of God and hates above all else.

23:48 when people say they've come through the narrow gate, actually walk in a way that utterly despises the devil's influence upon the totality of life. And says from the heart, in every single facet of my life, I am determined I will not be conformed to this world. I will not take my marching orders from the world, However they come to me, however I may have danced and marched and jumped to the devil's tune in the past, I mean it by the grace of God that baggage was discarded. I'm committed to walk the narrow, compressed, and difficult way of nonconformity to the world.

24:38 The way of true, extensive separation from the world. Candlish writes, for the world, what is it? Fallen human nature acting itself out in the human family, molding and fashioning the framework of human society in accordance with its own tendencies. the world with the devil behind it is doing what?

25:10 Candlish writes rightly so fashioning the very framework of human society and apart from what we call the doctrine of common grace where God works contrary to what men are in themselves and what they would be if totally and extensively in every area under the power of the devil apart from that the world shapes the framework of human society in according with its own tendencies. It is fallen human nature, making the outgoings of human thought, feeling, and action its own. It is the reign or kingdom of the carnal mind which is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

25:57 Wherever that mind prevails, there is the world.

26:06 Do you got a feeling from all of these definitions and descriptions from these responsible expositors? Let me give you, I hope it's not a simplistic distillation in this simple statement. What is the world? it is the ungodly worldview and lifestyle produced in its estrangement from God and in its bondage to the devil.

Feeling the Weight of Scripture: The Necessity of Nonconformity

26:34 The ungodly worldview and the lifestyle it produces in its estrangement from God and in its bondage to the devil. Having sought to help you with a definition and description we come secondly now and this will be the bulk of our time this morning I want you to seek to feel the weight and I chose the word carefully I want you to seek to feel the weight and yield to the clear teaching of the following text of scripture and we're going to look at four this morning key text that we might really be persuaded that if I am on the narrow the compressed the difficult way which alone leads to life.

27:23 And I'm going to keep underscoring it. There is not another way to life. Narrow gate, compressed way, they alone lead to life. You don't want this way, you don't want life.

27:33 The opposite of life is destruction. And destruction is hell. And hell is the smoke of their torment going up forever and forever. I want you to feel.

27:45 Will you pray as you sit there? Oh God, help me to feel the weight and yield to the teaching of these scriptures. So I'm attacking your sense and your understanding. I don't want you to just sit here and say, oh yeah, I think that's a fairly honest...

28:04 I don't want you to go out here without feeling. If the world has me, I'm on my way to hell. if I am not living a life of increasing nonconformity to the world, I have no biblical grounds to say I'm on the narrow, the compressed, the difficult way that leads to life. I want you to feel that in the texture of your soul and yield to the clear teaching of these scriptures.

Christ's Description of His True Disciples: Chosen Out of the World

28:34 First of all, our Lord's description of His true disciples. Turn to John 15, if you will, please. Our Lord's description of his true disciples. John chapter 15 and verse 18.

28:53 Having commanded his own to love one another, our Lord then says in John 15, 18, If the world hates you, that is, the men and women, boys and girls, enmeshed in this system of things in alienation to God, under the power of the devil, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Then he's going to give the rationale for that. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you, notice now, not in the world, but out of the world,

29:40 therefore the world hates you. What is our Lord's description of his true people? Remember, this is not an exhortation. This is an affirmation.

29:53 This is in the indicative. He's saying what is. He's saying, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. You are not of the world.

30:04 You are my kingdom subjects. You've come through the narrow gate. You have been delivered from the clutches of the world upon you. You are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

30:21 You are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you. Why does the world hate you? Well, in John 3, you have the answer.

30:32 This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Neither will they come to the light lest their deed should be reproved. Why did they hate our blessed Lord Jesus?

30:49 Who moved amongst men full of grace, full of truth, full of kindness, full of compassion, full of tenderness. They hated the light that exposed the darkness of their sin-loving heart. that is the darkness of being enmeshed in the world. And here our Lord says, My true people are not of the world.

31:17 I have chosen them out of the world. I dare not talk of being elect unless I've been delivered from the fundamental enmeshing power of the world. for he chooses his own out of the world. John 8, 23 He said unto them, You are from beneath, speaking to these impenitent Jews.

31:43 I am from above. You are of this world. You yet think of me in terms dictated by the prince of darkness who blinds your mind, lest you should behold the glory of God in my face. you are of the world. But he says, I am not of this world. Now he says to his disciples, you are not of this world. Therefore, all who truly belong to Christ have experienced a radical deliverance out of this world system. In the language of Colossians 1.13, we have been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of his dear son. We are children of a heavenly birth, we have entered the new age, which will issue in eternal life in all of its

32:34 consummate glory in the new heavens and the new earth. That's who you are. That's who I am, if we're true disciples. Secondly, I want us to consider not only our Lord's description of his true disciples, our Lord's directives to his disciples through the authoritative writings of the epistles.

Paul's Compelling Appeal: Do Not Be Conformed to This World

32:57 Our Lord's directives to his true disciples. What does he say to us with regard to this matter of the world? Consider with me, first of all, the compelling appeal of Paul. Then we're going to look at the simple command of John, and then we're going to look at the striking analogies of James.

33:15 So we're going to confront Paul and John and James. Romans chapter 12. many of you know the structure of this book the apostle has laid out the very heart of gospel truth from A to Z culminating in this marvelous pion of praise at the end of chapter 11 thinking of how God sovereignly administers the knowledge and power of that salvation among nations and among individuals and he stands back and says, oh, the depth of the ridges. And he breaks out in praise to God.

33:54 And now in chapter 12, verse 1, I beseech you on bended knee. I entreat, I plead. As an apostle, he could have said, I command you. But no, his heart is suffused with the wonder of God's grace in the salvation proffered to sinners in Jesus Christ, administered sovereignly not only to individuals but among the nations and now with a heart just impregnated in every cell of its being with the wonder of God's grace on bended knee he comes to the Romans and says I beseech you, I entreat you I plead with you therefore brethren by the mercies of God

34:40 squeezed into that phrase the mercies of God are all the marvelous things he's expounded in this letter by these things, these realities of the opening of God's heart and the lifting up of the sleuth gates of grace and the torrent of salvation poured out in Christ. I plead with you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies, the entirety of your redeemed humanity, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual or rational or reasonable service In the light of such mercy surely the disposition of your heart is O God in the light of the overwhelming revelation of your mercies what can I do but say with renewed understanding Here I am Lord

35:39 And as a sacrifice, a literal physical sacrifice in the Jewish system of sacrificial offerings would be slain and placed dead upon an altar, no life of its own, he says, as a living sacrifice, May your presentation be as deep and thorough as though you'd had your throat slit and your lifeless carcass handed by another, handled by another, was placed upon an altar. He said, so present yourself with unreserved abandonment, with total resignation, as a rational, reasonable, spiritual service unto God. Not some bodily, physical sacrifice, but this that entails the full energy of your soul, drawing in its train all of your faculties in your redeemed body, presented unto God.

36:34 And then it's as though someone said, and Paul, from that posture, where do I go? He says, here's where you go. Look at verse 2. And do not be fashioned according to this world.

36:48 Oh, that's negative. Yes, it is negative. It is negative. You and I need negativity to know the mind and will of God. And from that posture he says, do not be fashioned according to this world.

37:08 Don't allow this system of men and things which is in opposition to God and is under the power of the devil. It is not a neutral society out there, folks.

37:23 In every magazine that is printed, apart from those that are consciously seeking to be Christian, in every newspaper with its ads, in all of the advertising stuff that floats before your eyes, that comes with your mail and the catalogs and all you see on the TV, everything that grinds the wheels of American commercialism is of the world. And behind that world is a devil who is shaping and molding the whole fabric of society to blind it to the things that count and take it down to hell. Don't let your mind be conformed by it. The fashion industry is part of the world.

38:11 And that fashion industry is seeking to destroy, on the one hand with women particularly, every last vestige of what it means to be modest. And with men, everything that needs to be decorous and neat and put together. And we live in the age of the cult of the ugly. It was a time when the handsome model would have his hair in place.

38:37 Have his tie just right now. I look at some of these things and I say it's bizarre.

38:44 Bizarre. What's behind it? It's not neutral folks. It's not neutral.

38:53 This obsession was sound. I go to pick up my wife the other night at the airport. And I watch. Everyone coming down the escalator's got something stuck in his ear.

39:04 Either a cell phone or an iPod. What's behind this bombardment of the mind with sound 24-7? Is it neutral?

39:17 Not if you're thinking biblically. There's a sinister power. What's made a generation obsessed with the jungle beat and the wild, irrational, immoral people that have led the vanguard of a whole society into obsession with all forms of rock music? What's behind it, folks?

39:42 A mighty visitation of the Holy Ghost that has spawned a new musical form to the glory of God? Are you ready to say that? You're not so stupid as to try it.

39:57 Be not conformed to this age.

40:03 Paul says you've got to be aware that this age wants to squeeze you into its mold. Oh yes, you've left the world. But the world ain't left you. And because you've left the world, it doesn't say, oh well, we've lost one of our subjects.

40:18 We've still got a lot more over here to work on. We'll leave him alone. Oh, no. Don't like you on that narrow road.

40:26 It bothers them. You remember when Christian and his buddy entered Vanity Fair?

40:34 What do folk in Vanity Fair say? Oh, well, here's a couple of queer nuts, but the straight, late do-gooders, we'll just ignore them and leave them alone. Oh, no, they ended up killing one of them. The world is not going to leave you alone, folks.

40:47 It's after you. It is determined because there's a devil behind it to squeeze you into its mold. The last thing the devil wants is subjects of the kingdom living by the laws and rules and the ethos of the kingdom. Because it shows the world thing, we don't need your pails of pig salt to be fulfilled people.

41:13 We've got streams of inner delight you know nothing about. We've got fountains of joy you know nothing about. We've got sources of spiritual food you know nothing about. The devil hates that.

41:30 And that's why this world system that is under his control is seeking to squeeze you, squeeze you, squeeze you. You say, well, I don't feel the world squeezing me. That's the problem. If you got serious about this injunction, Be not conformed to this world.

41:50 I am not going to think worldly thoughts about any area of life. But, now notice the next injunction, and it leads naturally to it. Be transformed, be continually transformed, metamorphosed, how? by the renewing of your mind.

42:17 Uh-oh. You mean if I don't start thinking seriously about the issue that the world is seeking to squeeze me into its mold and begin to pray earnestly that God will give me discernment to see where my thinking about any area of life, any relationship in life is being shaped and molded by the world and I might repent of it. I'm not going to make any progress. You got it.

42:50 Be not fashioned. Don't let the world, Philip's translation, squeeze you into its mold, but be continually transformed by the renewing of your mind. To what end? that you may prove, that is, that you may work out and validate in your experience what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

43:16 Oh, you mean my pursuit of universal obedience and universal holiness will not know much success unless I deal with this issue of the world. You've got it. You've got it. I hope you've got it.

43:30 that's Paul's compelling appeal the broad easy road which leads to destruction is the road of unthinking undiscerning gullible absorption of the world's ways and thought and action and when it gets joined to religion it's tragic because then the world begins to dictate how we worship and because in the world everyone's obsessed with certain musical forms then surely if we're going to reach the world we've got to import them into the church and so you're going to win the world

44:18 by being like the world sad oh we've got generation Xers they're visually obsessed we can no longer have preaching central to the proclamation of the gospel. We must have dance and we must have mime and we must have acting troops. Who says so? The world.

44:38 You give us the gospel the way we say we want it. Or take your gospel. We must have the grace to say lovingly, tenderly, but firmly, God's told us how to give you the gospel. He's ordained by the foolishness of the thing preached to save them that believe.

44:56 And if you're too proud to hear God's declaration of his mind about you and about his salvation, you'll go to perish eternally wedded to your pride.

45:11 Be not conformed to this world, this age. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's Paul's compelling appeal. Now we turn to 1 John chapter 2 to confront the simple command of John.

John's Simple Command: Love Not the World

45:27 The simple command of John.

45:35 Verses 15 to 17. In the preceding context, John has affirmed the conquests of grace in the experience of God's people. verses 12 to 14 commentators differ as to whether he's speaking to different classes of believers or all believers viewed under the different images of children, young men, old men, but one thing is clear he's celebrating what God's grace has wrought in other words, in language you're familiar with he's been giving the indicatives of grace, you are, you have, you are, you have however, having experience the indicatives of grace does not make us immune from contrary negative influences. And so

46:22 John then says in verse 15, to these very people in whom the grace of God has done this marvelous work, they've overcome the evil one. They know the Father. They are strong. The word of God abides in They've overcome the evil one.

46:40 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world passes away and the lust thereof, that he that does the will of God abides forever.

47:17 Let's look for a few moments at John's simple command. The command has two prongs, look at it. Don't be loving the world. That system of men and things in opposition to God, under the control of the prince of this world, don't set your affection upon it and yield yourself to it.

47:45 Don't be loving the world. Don't do it. neither, and then he descends from the generic to a more specific, neither the things that are of the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

48:04 Now, what did John expect them to do? He expected them to connect love of the world to the things that are in the world. Now, in our day and in our circles, you begin to name worldly things, and immediately you don't understand Christian liberty. You're a legalist.

48:26 John said, neither the things that are of the world are in the world. Assuming that they would then use their cognitive powers and say, what do you think John meant when he said things that are in the world? We've got to think and begin to identify specific things that are worldly things, and we must not love them because our love of the world generically will be seen in our love for these things specifically.

49:00 You get the connection. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. and then as though John anticipates someone saying well, you know man John I found being around old preachers they get kind of crotchety and right angle as they get old it's really not such a big deal is it John? I mean we've experienced all these things you've just told us our sins are forgiven for his name's sake you've told us we've overcome the evil one you've told us we know the Father You've told us that we are strong and the word of God abides in us.

49:41 John, it's not such a big deal, is it? John says, yes, it is. Look at the text. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

49:49 If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If our hearts are set upon this attachment to the world, a commitment to refuse to do what Paul said to think through those things which are a reflection of the world conforming me to its desires and refusing them and in the strength of Christ and out of the virtue of my union with Him by the power of the Spirit to be transformed by the renewing of if I take all this lightly because I love the world And I don't want to get rid of my lover. John says the love of the Father is not in him.

50:38 Now the commentators debate, is this an objective or a subjective genitive? Does it mean the Father's love has never taken up its root in me? Or does it mean that I have no love to the Father? Well, either way, it ain't good.

50:54 You love the world, it doesn't say anything flattering about you. it doesn't say the love of the father is in you because you are forgiven you've overcome the evil one but its power has been he says in typical joanine right angle black or white issue the love of the father is not in you you love the world your heart is set upon the world you resent it when any preacher seeks to wing you from the world when mom and dad seek to guard you from the insidious influence of the world in what you see on your television what they allow you to wear what they allow you to read, the music they allow you to listen to. You hate it. You resent it. Why? Because you love the world.

51:35 The world is your paramour. The world is your whore. You don't like getting rid of her. She pleases you. She says sweet things to you.

51:47 She strokes your face. Makes you feel important. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. You have no right to say you are one of his select and elect and specially loved ones for whom the Savior died.

52:03 If Christ's death has not broken the mesmerizing power of the world upon your heart, the love of the Father, the Father's love in Christ to sinners has never found a root in you. And certainly it's true, you do not love the Father. because the Father says, don't love the world. And you prove you don't love the Father because whom you love, you obey.

Manifestations of Worldliness: Lust of the Flesh, Eyes, and Pride of Life

52:30 And the Father says, don't love the world. Then John goes on. 4, verse 16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life.

52:52 Is John saying the totality of worldliness is summed up in these three things? No, that's not what he's saying. John is not saying the totality of the things of the world can be subsumed under these three headings. No he saying all that is in the world and for example I give you these three things wherever you find the operations of the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life that stuff is not from the Father, but that comes out of the world.

53:24 It's like Paul does in Galatians 5. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and such like. I haven't completed the list. John is not saying, for this would contradict the total witness of Scripture, that the entirety of what the world is and the influence of the world is subsumed under these three things.

53:49 But what he is saying, where you find these three things operative, you better wake up and realize, hey, I am loving the things of the world, and it's time I got my act together. If I say I've come through the narrow gate, and I've thrown away the baggage of attachment to the world as my companion and the molder of my life, And if I say I'm on the narrow, compressed way that leads to life, these things have got to go. For they are the children of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But it's the lust of the flesh in this context, I believe.

54:25 It's the God-given bodily appetite satisfied outside the guidelines of the God who gave the appetites. when the desires of the flesh given by God the desire for food for sexual fulfillment for sleep for recreation the desire to enjoy pleasure pleasurable things when those desires leap the boundaries of the word of God they become lusts of the flesh And there the world is operative. In that world out there in which we live right now, what is that lust or what are those lusts that are rampant?

55:17 Promiscuous sex. And so the way to cure any epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases is to give all of the girls from nine years old onward the new antivirus shot.

55:35 Forbid that any would say, look it, sweetie, you keep yourself a virgin and marry only a man that's been a virgin or it's clear that his past life is behind him and he has no diseases and you'll have no sexually trans... Oh, don't dare say that's to moralize!

55:55 Obesity is a national epidemic. That's not because Pastor Martin's obsessed with fitness. You can find it in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and any paper. Both children and adults.

56:12 The billions of medical expenses because people are succumbing to the lust of the flesh that is found between here and here. refusing to govern their caloric intake and their activity so that food is used for the purpose for which God gave it to bring us enjoyment, yes but to nourish and strengthen us to live a useful life to the glory of God for as long as we can in the best shape we can that's what he gave us food for lust of the flesh recreation Sunday sports

56:57 here in this area ten years ago unthought of football games soccer games all kinds of high school games on the Lord's Day why? this lust for sports the violence in sports all of these things if these are not ethically and morally neutral they are the things that are in the world the lust, the desires of the flesh the lust of the eyes the desire to possess things beyond what the precepts of God allow me in my circumstances and providence has assigned me in the will of God the lust of the eyes I see things I desire things I'm going to have things though the precepts of God would not encourage me

57:44 to believe I can possess them to the glory of God, or God's providence has not assigned my lot. We came across that last week in 1 Timothy 6. Paul charges those who in the providence of God have a mere subsistence existence, and he says, you who would set your heart upon being rich, you'll drown yourself in sorrows and in perdition. the precepts of God and the providence of God mark out a modest lifestyle then he says charge them that are rich in the providence of God in keeping with the precepts of God riches are theirs charge them not to set their heart on uncertain riches

58:29 charge them to be ready to distribute to lay up a good stock of good works the lust of the eyes is I see it I want it I'll have it. Now let me get very specific. I think this nation has gone mad over telephones.

58:51 Can you remember when cell phones first came out, this was a marvelous means for honey to keep in touch with hubby when she's out on the road. If she gets a flat tire, she doesn't need to go out and wave or tip her skirt up to get someone to stop and change the tire. Marvelous thing, the cell phone. huh?

59:12 Six months later, cell phone with this. Six months later, cell phone with that. And now I can't even keep up. I don't mess with it.

59:23 Well, I renewed my contract, never got one until Marilyn was housebound, and I felt I needed to get one then. Two years, the contract, the lady says, you get a new phone. I said, what do I need a new phone for? I said, this one works fine.

59:34 She said, it comes with renewing the contract. I said, I don't need a new phone. What do I need a new phone? Oh, it's got a lot more things.

59:40 I said the only thing I used is I dialed 973-256-4069.

59:47 And then I programmed in Gord and Trinity Church and one other verbal direction. I don't need it for anything else. What do I want a new phone for? She looked at me like I was from another planet.

59:59 Got to have pictures. Got to have video games. Got to have this. Got to have that.

60:04 What's this doing? It's this market-driven system of American culture. It's the world, folks. The lust of the eyes.

60:13 Put the image on your retina. Send a signal to your brain. I see it. I want it.

60:20 I've got to have it. Families in which every kid has a cell phone. For what?

60:28 Got their own computer. For what?

60:34 Do you see? And I'm amazed so many Christians don't even stop to think they're being swept along by the lust of the eyes. If you never saw it, you wouldn't want it. And feel you had to have it and then go out and get it.

60:54 While there are tremendous needs for the spread of the gospel, we wait to see the kind of support coming in to send our brother Thompson to that expensive living place to preach the gospel. And when I see in this church family excesses of indulgence in stuff while I judge no individual by the grace of God, when I see a tendency and a pattern, surely, brethren, surely we need to stop and read 1 John, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. It's more than lusting after a man or a woman

61:40 other than your wife or husband in sexual desire. The lust of the eye is that which impinges upon the retina and persuades me that I will not know the good. I will not know the blessedness. I will not know the fulfillment of life unless I get this next thing, this next thing.

62:02 That's what drives the world.

62:06 And we need to be a people happy as clams without being crammeled with every new thing that comes down the pike. Do you have this? No. You look like a happy old man.

62:20 Yeah, I am.

62:23 You don't have this? No. You don't go here? No.

62:27 What in the world makes you tick? be ready to give every man an answer of the hope that is in you. And the pride of life, and the commentators go round and round, vainglory of life, the key word, bios, many times in the New Testament means possessions, but in several instances it means life in general. What's John saying?

62:49 I'm not quite certain what he's saying, but one thing is clear. The word that he used for vainglory, being puffed up, that's clear. It has to do with a disposition of the heart that looks upon what I have and what I possess. From material things to anything else, as Paul says, what have you that you did not receive?

63:10 Any gift, any grace, any possession, any relationship that is enriching. All that I have is given. And the world operates on the basis, I got what I got because I worked for it. I deserved it.

63:24 You hear the ads. Become a millionaire. you deserve to be. Get the things you deserve to have. The vain glory of life. That's not of the world.

63:35 It's not of the world. Not of the world. And then John seeking to clinch his exhortation. Listen to what he says.

The Transience of the World vs. the Permanence of God's Will

63:43 The world passes away, the lust thereof. But he that does the will of God abides forever.

63:52 This world system is passing away. This system of men and things, this whole fabric of society shaped and molded by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vain glory of life, and behind it the prince of the power of the air, the prince of this world, it's passing away. Our Lord Jesus will come, and that is coming in that mighty final conflagration, burning up this world and the works thereof to usher in the new heavens and the new earth. It's all transitory.

64:29 It has no substance. But that which has substance is knowing God and living with God and communing with God. He that does the will of God. You see, the will of God is in direct contrast to loving the world and the things of the world.

64:45 You can't do the will of God. You can't prove in your experience the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God while you're a worldly. You can't do it. The world passes away.

64:58 The lust thereof that he that does the will of God abides forever. Listen to what one commentator says. Does the siren voice of the world tickle your ears? Hear the word of truth.

65:13 The world is passing away. The bank is breaking. It was never solvent. Will you deposit in it?

65:21 The foundation is tottering. It was never solid, but only sham. Will you build on it? The mountain is rumbling, quaking.

65:30 It was never anything but volcanic, ready to blow off its head at any time. Will you build your city there? Searching questions. Is that where you want to put your stock, young people?

65:43 mesmerized and oh just so fascinated with what the world seems to hold out to you it's passing away it's transient under the imagery of this author it's a bank that is breaking was never solvent it's a foundation that is sham it's like the stuff on a movie Satan set made of paper mache it's a volcano ready to blow off its head. There is nothing substantial to it. Well, I had hoped to get to the James passages, but that will have to wait until next Lord's Day. But what are you going to do with these passages?

Call to Repentance and Future Hope

66:27 Have you felt something of the pressure of them? That this matter of being sure that I'm on that narrow, compressed, difficult, restricted way is a matter of supreme importance. I can't just blow it off. I know it's not popular in our circles to talk about separation from the world.

66:53 That was part of our old fundy background. Well, there were some good things in that fundy background. And I think we've overreacted. And as Dabney said, when you leave an error here, and you're moving in this direction away from it, You think you're never closer to the truth when you're farthest away from the error when many times what you've done is you've created an error of equal and opposite danger on the other end of the spectrum.

67:21 And there are worldly movies that you ought not to be watching whose plot line and whose substance drips with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and drips with uncleanness and foul language. and ought never to enter the eyes of a Christian. Because God says whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, think of these things. There are worldly entertainments.

67:54 There are worldly relationships. There are worldly recreations. And it's time we started to think before we indulge under the guise of it's our liberty. You're not at liberty to be a worldling.

68:09 God says, don't be conformed to this world. There is worldly dress. There is worldly wedding gowns and bridesmaids dresses that bear flesh in the way that only a bridegroom ought to see them on a wedding night.

68:27 Don't hear any amens, but it's the truth. It's the truth. And the world has invaded the church and its weddings. invaded the church and its worship invaded church members' homes with its DVDs and VCRs and the blockbuster rentals.

68:49 Dear people, it's time we stop flirting with the world. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world for if any man loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. And as I close, I must at least just quote the verse that I hope to expound next week, where John says in chapter 5, This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Christ?

69:24 The only thing that will break the mesmerizing power of the world is a sight of and all soul commitment to Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work to become so enamored with Him that the world loses its siren power over our souls. Let's pray.

69:53 Our Father, Your Word has found us and we confess with shame that we have all together been too careless in allowing this world system to mold us, to shape us, to dictate to us. And we ask your forgiveness. We pray that you would help us so to be weaned from this world and the things of the world that we may as never before Be the light of the world and that we may function as salt to this world. We remember the prayer of our Lord Jesus that we would not be taken out of the world,

70:39 but that we would be kept from the evil one and from the evil of the world. And we pray that that prayer will be answered in us in ways it never has been before. Seal your word to our hearts. Do our good into your praise, we pray.

70:57 Amen.