A Word of Explanation, Clarification & Amplification

Introduction: The Narrow Gate and Way to Life

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, November 5th, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now once more, let us turn to Matthew chapter 7, the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

0:24 And I read in your hearing the words that I trust by now you've all memorized, and the very reflection upon them I also trust will bring to mind much of what we have come to understand of this portion of God's Word. Matthew 7, 13 and 14.

0:47 Our Lord Jesus speaking, 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.

1:06 How narrow is the gate, and compressed, difficult, restricted,

1:16 narrow the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Let us again pray.

1:34 Our Father, I feel so keenly as your servant the utter futility of standing in this pulpit, framing vocables, words that go out into the air, land upon the outer vestibule of human ears, send vibrations into the inner ear and along the auditory nerve to the brain, and it will all be for nothing. O God, an exercise in absolute futility, unless you come, unless you're pleased to fulfill your promise, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return unto me void. O God, may it not be said of any here, the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith. Or may it not be said, that then comes the evil one and plucks up the seed of the word.

2:46 O Father, come by your power, do not leave us at the mercy of our own self-destructive resources, but come with gracious power to uphold your servant, to be with his mouth, to enable him to speak your word as the oracles of God, and with every hearer. O Lord, come, we pray, for our good in your glory we plead. Amen.

Recap: Discarding Baggage at the Gate and the Nature of the Narrow Way

3:22 We come this morning, to the eighth message in our series of studies, concerning the narrow gate, and the narrow or compressed and difficult way, which alone, which alone, according to Jesus, lead to eternal life. The gate and the way, which are metaphors used by our Lord to depict the necessity and nature of radical biblical conversion, that's the gate, and the necessity and nature of radical Christian discipleship, that's the way, without which, according to Jesus, no one, no one will enter into eternal life.

4:15 After establishing from these two verses that the gate, the way, and life are inseparable as the way to heaven, I then sought to identify those things that must be dealt with and discarded as disposable baggage if we are to pass through the narrow turnstile of radical biblical conversion. And we saw from the scriptures that we must discard from the heart the baggage of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency as the ground of our acceptance with God. That we must secondly discard from the heart the baggage of self-will as the governing principle of our lives. Thirdly, that we must discard from the heart the baggage of sin as the deliberate practice and pattern of our lives. And that fourthly, we must discard from the heart the world and its ways as the molding influence upon our lives and without it, without that unpacking of that baggage, no one, no one gets through the narrow gate. While all the while a wide gate of religious experience that lets you go through

5:40 with one or more of this baggage clinging to you, it always stands open and inviting and the vast majority take the invitation. Many are the same. They are they that enter in thereby. Few are willing to be honest with the narrowness of the gate of radical biblical conversion because they love their stuff and they will not discard from the heart these four, the baggage, that which must be discarded or we cannot enter the narrow gate.

6:24 Then we moved on to consider together, what is it that makes the way, the path that follows the gate and leads to life, what is it that makes it a compressed, a restricted, a difficult, a narrow way? And I sought to identify the principle that that which makes it such a way is nothing more but nothing less than an extension into the totality of life of the issue of life. And that is why the Bible is so emphatic that it is only real, radical, biblical conversion that lays the groundwork for a life of radical discipleship. If things are not dealt with at the gate, then there will be problems all along the way in terms of living kingdom life, a style that is to mark the true people of God. And so with that principle in place, we have seen that the way is difficult. It is a narrow and compressed way because it is the way of continuing to cling to Christ in the death grip of faith as the only ground of our acceptance with God

7:53 and the only source of power to live a life pleasing to God. Secondly, it is a difficult, a compressed, a narrow way because it is the way of a serious pursuit of a life of universal, evangelical obedience to Christ. If we have truly repudiated self-will at the gate, then the extension of that disposition is a life lived to the will of God in loving attachment to Jesus, and this commitment to universal, evangelical obedience to Him. Thirdly, it is the compressed, the difficult way of a serious pursuit of a life of universal gospel holiness in heart and in life. And fourthly, it is the life of an increasing non-conformity to and separation from the world and its ways as the molding influence upon my life. And as I began to address this fourth essential aspect of the narrow or difficult way, it's obvious that the thing has flowered and expanded, and I have spent a disproportionate amount of time dealing with this whole issue of worldliness.

The Burden of Worldliness and its Definition

9:19 And the reason I've done that is that there has been a growing burden in this area, and I wasn't sure how that burden would find expression in the pulpit ministry, but when I began to expound this passage, it's as though the Lord said, I didn't hear any voices, it's as though the Lord said, Son, here's the place to unburden yourself about this matter. For I am deeply persuaded, not as the conviction of a few days, but as the growing conviction of the past several years, that the Trojan horse, the Trojan horse, the Trojan horse, the Trojan horse, in this church and in our circles, that which, if allowed to maintain existence within the walls, will ultimately undo us, is a creeping, growing spirit of worldliness. And it is for that reason that I have been constrained not to beat things thin at the edges, but to expound with some degree of thoroughness just the key to the world. The key and dominant text which addressed this. I've bypassed the secondary and tertiary text of which there are many, and simply concentrated upon those major and key texts.

10:44 So, I began by identifying that world, that world to which we are not to be conformed, from which we are to be increasingly separated. And what is it? As fair bearers, and says it is fallen human nature, acting itself out in the human family, molding and fashioning the framework of human society in accordance with its own tendencies. So, whatever goes into human society, everything in it, fashion, entertainment, standards of right and wrong, goals, ambitions, etc., etc., etc. What is the world? It is fallen human nature, acting itself out in the human family, molding and fashioning the framework of human society in accordance with its own tendencies.

11:46 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 endless. It is the reign or kingdom of the carnal mind, which is endless. enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.

12:04 Wherever that mind prevails, there is the world. Or as another has said, the world, as often in Scripture, particularly in the writings of the Apostle John, designates the men and things here below regarded as pervaded and controlled by the great evil spirit whom Jesus himself called the prince of this world. I gave this simple summary, the world is the ungodly worldview and the lifestyle it produces in its estrangement from God and in its bondage to the devil. I then proceeded to open up some of these major texts which demonstrate that the mark of everyone who is on that compressed, restricted, the narrow road that leads to life is to be marked by an increasing nonconformity to and separation from the world. And if that's not true of you, if that's not true of me, we have no biblical warrant to say we are on the road that leads to life. We continue to maintain an assurance of salvation and eternal life.

13:26 In the face of the clear teaching of the word of God. And that is tragic and that is dangerous. When someone is determined to say, I know I'm a Christian because of this, because of that, because of the other, but cannot say, my conscience affirms in the full light of these texts that my life is a life by the grace and power of Christ. Increasingly, out of the light of God.

Biblical Mandate for Separation from the World

13:56 of step with this world. A life of increasing non-conformity to and separation from this world. And so we delved into those texts. We looked at our Lord's description of his true disciples in John 15 and John 17, the sum of which is the little phrase, they are not of this world.

14:24 That is our Lord's description of his own. So utterly and radically separated from it at the gate and increasingly separated from it along the way that he can say of his own, they are not of this world. Yes, they are still in it and therefore he prays they shall be kept from the evil of it. But he says they are not of this world. They dance in every area of life to a different tune.

14:54 They march to the beat of a different drum. It is the kingdom orchestra to which they dance. It is the kingdom drum to which they march, not the orchestra and the drum of this present world. Then we looked at what I called Paul's compelling appeal in Romans 12, 1 and 2.

15:18 In response to the grace of God giving ourselves up as living sacrifices, we are told, be not fashioned according to this world. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold, but be continually transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Then we looked at John's simple command in 1 John 2, 15 to 17. Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world.

15:49 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. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever. Then we looked at the vivid and shocking analogies of James.

16:13 James 1, 27. True religion is to keep oneself unspotted from the world. To be a worldling while named. Naming the name of Christ is to be guilty, James 4, 4, of spiritual adultery.

16:29 He just hurled the term adultery. As he has been pointing out aspects of worldliness, he calls them guilty of spiritual adultery. And then further in that verse says, Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? James sets before us the responsibility that as before God, God did with the world and our lives.

The Theological Foundation for Separation: Christ's Deliverance

17:10 Well, then that led to the question I took up last Lord's Day. Why does the Bible and repeated emphasis of, I didn't have to manufacture from secondary text,

17:32 here the text of the world be not conformed with respect, and I sought to from the Bible. It is because separation of the foundation for which Christ did for his own. That's why. Because. Because is one of the foundations who gave him to deliver us out of this present according of our God and Father. Titus 2, 14.

18:49 The salvation dissipated in its hand. One hand looking for the blessed, whole and glorious who gave him for us iniquity. Purify us for people his unique. Not to a life control of righteousness. All of my heart by the law of God. He.

20:05 He died and for any to say hold full to Jesus that his death has saved me from the wrath of God apart from his death I would be liable to and to hell I'm so thankful Jesus to come by Jesus from the wrath to come while being indifferent concerning one of the major per which he died is sheer hypocrisy it is turning the grace of God and that's this to say with to come.

20:59 But with this. To put me under the tutelage of that revealed sin that said of ungodliness and on Galatians 1, 4. The text that says who gave us that he might deliver us out of this present evil age. Here Calvin.

21:34 To know whether or not the benefits of the sin death of the Lord Jesus died to us. We need to walk in the fear of God. For if we give a free reign we reject us. While it is true.

21:56 It depends on the grace of God. And we cannot. That our works in order to gain assurance of the same. We must deny ourselves.

22:07 Whatever we might think. Our Lord Jesus.

22:11 To give us occasion to abuse the grace he has shown us. For this would be to mock him openly. If we wallow in after he has washed us in his blood. We are willfully profaning that most holiness the world is.

22:32 And since we are to be corrupt and thus condemned. Nothing can cleanse us but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What intolerance. It is.

22:44 Therefore to return to the mire as we so often do. Let us then be clear that the fruit of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor to turn to the concept in which Paul spoke. That which is called.

23:13 That which is called holy things and meaning of God's. To the idea of separation from this present evil world. What then must we do and what should be our life's aim? We are living a holy life.

23:41 Indeed we will never perfectly attain to this. Until we have been taken out of the world. But nonetheless it is the goal we press. And to which we ought to be drawing closer.

23:56 And then I skip over a whole section and he says. However we are also to have this one goal. To be separate from this wicked world. We are to have this one goal.

24:12 Wicked world. We need to pray. That having touched us.

24:18 He will increase his gifts and graces in us. And mortify the lust of our flesh. When we are aware of such a battle occurring. We must.

24:32 Otherwise we will come limping to God. Stumbling. Many times. Upon the way.

24:40 Listen to Luke. Another giant of reformation activity and truth. Commenting on this very world. This very text.

24:49 Galatians 1.4. In his. Commentary on Galatians.

24:55 I quote Luther. Let these words of Paul.

25:06 Not counterfeit. This prayer. Do not be dissuaded. Because there are many fine virtues.

25:16 In many men. Or because hypocrites make a great pretense of sanctity. Pay careful attention to what Paul says.

25:29 And freely pronounce this since against the world. That the world. With all righteousness. And the devil.

25:43 May God be able to deliver us. By.

25:51 And what about old Matthew Henry. On the same text. One great of Christ.

26:01 From this present. To redeem us from. But also.

26:11 That is in.

26:16 From the vicious.

26:20 Unto which we are naturally. Enslaved. From this we may know. One.

26:26 This present.

26:28 It is become so by. And it is so on account of the sin and sorrow. With which it abounds in the many snares. As long as we continue in it.

26:42 To. Jesus Christ is. To deliver us. From this present evil world.

26:49 Not presently to remove his people out of it. But to rescue them from the. And to keep them from the evil of it. And in due time to possess them of another.

27:00 And a better world. This the apostle informs us he has done. Verse four. Of Galatians one.

27:08 According to the will. Of our God. And of our father. Now folks.

27:17 That is Bible. And you have got to reckon. I have got to reckon with the fact. That if I am not.

27:25 While professing to be.

27:28 If I am not. Increasing. Manifest. And separate.

27:58 And at worst.

28:04 I don't like either option. Do you?

28:09 Then up. And my commitment. By the grace of God. To be more.

28:33 Nonconformity. More. And liberated from. Is resolute.

Explanation and Justification for Specific Applications

28:39 And determined. But what I want to do. In the remainder of the time. That waits to me this morning.

28:46 Is I want to give a word of explanation. And clarification. And amplification. Concerning some things.

28:52 I said last Lord's day. After opening up. I didn't give you the third text. Galatians six fourteen.

28:59 I'm sorry. Where Paul says I have been. God forbid that I should glory. Save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

29:07 By which the world is crucified unto me. And I unto the world. And I gave a brief exposition. Those.

29:13 Of the three major text. Now. As I've been sensitive to. Feedback from last week's message.

29:19 And as I reflected myself. Upon some of the things that I said. I feel there's need. Pastor Lee.

29:27 And you are visiting. You'll just have to bear with us. I can't go back and re preach everything from last week. A word of explanation.

29:34 Clarification and amplification. First of all. Why did I make some very specific and concrete applications and illustrations. Of.

29:44 How the world influences us. Why did I do that. I named some. What looked to be for most people.

29:52 Innocuous innocent. Family magazines. I think I said. Family circle.

29:57 Woman's day. Something like that. I named them. I mentioned what.

30:03 I think all would regard as very. Most people would regard as very innocent innocuous movies. Pride and prejudice. And then I mentioned Spiderman.

30:12 And then I mentioned some. Medical practices in conjunction with emotional and psychological problems dealings with anxiety and depression and tension now why did I descend from the exposition which clearly teaches Christ died to take us out of the molding influence of this world and why did I get specific and name magazines and some movies and some medical practices well for the simple reason that this is precisely the way the profits. Our Lord and the apostles deal with ethical matters. If I'm to be a Bible preacher.

30:55 I must not only state the principles and root them in a responsible exposition of the word. But I must take the principle and dress it up in specific clothing because that's how our Bible comes to us. For example. Now turn with me please.

31:15 Matthew Chapter five right here in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is correcting the truncated view which the Pharisees had perpetuated concerning God's law. Verse twenty one you have heard that it was said to them of old time you shall not kill whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. The Lord is going to tell them the true intention of that commandment you shall not commit murder.

31:43 And how does he do it. Notice how he does it. But I say unto you everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment. Whosoever shall say to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the council and whosoever shall say you fool shall be in danger of the hell of fire.

32:05 What's he doing. He's saying the true intention of that commandment you shall do no murder. Is that you have no disposition of active. Ill will toward another human being.

32:18 That's the principle. But now you see the Lord doesn't just throw out the principle thou shall have no disposition of active ill will to another human being and let it float by. He closed it in specific descriptive language and he says if anyone says Raka that was a term like knucklehead said in that way not innocent. Hey.

32:45 You knucklehead you did a stupid thing. But saying it that way with with that spirit and whosoever you say you fool you stupid idiot. What is the Lord doing. He's taking the generic principle and clothing it in specific expressions that would have resonated with all of his hearers.

33:05 They would have heard that terminology. Likewise verse 38 you've heard that it was said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you do not. Resist him that is evil.

33:19 That injunction was never meant for individual relationships it had to do with civil court issues in Israel. If someone gouged out your eye in a fight then you'd lose your eye as the judges dealt with matters of equity in that incident. But the Lord now is saying no no but in your individual relationships. You are to have a disposition.

33:46 Of. Amity and peacefulness and rather than saying eye for eye tooth for tooth you're to be one ready to yield your own rights and yield your own desires to another. But how does he get the point across. He doesn't do it by giving an abstract principle in saying you're to have a disposition of yieldedness to others as opposed to a disposition of personal vengeance.

34:13 He clothes it in specific things. Look at it. But whosoever smacks you on the right cheek turn to him the other. And if a man would go to law with you and take away your coat let him have your cloak whosoever shall compel you to go one mile which a Roman soldier could do in Israel at that time go within two.

34:37 What's the Lord doing. He's clothing the generic principle in specific applications. That might stick. In the consciences that might awaken the moral consciousness of his hearers and they say oh I've got it with that I see it with that I see it with that and then they will make the further legitimate specific applications to their own life and the apostles do the same thing.

35:03 Look at Galatians 5 19 to 21. I want to demonstrate this from the scriptures so that you will see not only is this legitimate it is mandated. If we're to preach the Bible the way the Bible comes to us. Galatians 5 19.

35:22 Now the works of the flesh are manifest and you all know what they are or the works of the flesh are manifest. Pray that the Holy Spirit put his finger on the no the works of the flesh are manifest which are these fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousies rats factions divisions parties. What is the flesh. What is the flesh.

35:38 What is the flesh. What is the flesh. What is the flesh. What is the flesh.

35:42 What is the flesh. What is the flesh. Parties envying drunkenness revellings. Now notice.

35:49 And complete.

35:53 You've got the idea. The works of the flesh. Here they are in sexual matters. Here they are in interpersonal matters.

36:01 And now that I've got you going thinking in terms of the specific manifestations of the works of the flesh. Think through and think out the others that ought to be in this list and such like and such like Paul. Lake. upon those Galatians and anyone preaching to the Galatians the legitimacy of filling in some of the such likes. Likewise, in 1 Timothy chapter 1, you have a similar evidence or a similar example of this in the apostle. You have these people abusing the law. And Paul says in 1 Timothy 1.8, We know the law is good if a man use it lawfully, as knowing this, the law is not made for a righteous man, lawless, unruly, ungodly sinners, unholy, profane, murderers of fathers, murder of mothers, manslayers, fornicators, abusers themselves, for men-stealers, for liars, for false swearers, and, and the list is not complete if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine. Don't think that I've given you the full list of the things that are exposed and

37:17 complicated. I've given you the full list of the things that are exposed and complicated. I've condemned this sin by the law. I've just pushed you in the direction of thinking with biblical mindset regarding these ethical things. And you find this in so many portions of the word of God. I hope these will at least persuade you that this is a legitimate thing to do. So after expounding the text, demonstrating that Jesus died to deliver us out of this present evil age, I got specific. Now, I did this with regard to movies. And I mentioned what most would regard as a very innocent, harmful, benign movie, namely, Pride and Prejudice. I did not know, I did not know that a group of students in that previous week, under the guidance and with the tutelage of one of the teachers in the Christian school, had gone to see a play of Pride and Prejudice. I did not know that. So that was just drawing my arrow at a venture.

Clarifying Applications: Mindless Consumption of Worldly Media

38:19 Now, what was I saying? Was I saying that no Christian should ever watch Pride and Prejudice? I did not say that. I didn't say that.

38:29 That would be legalism. That would be heavy-handed shepherding. What I was saying was, don't watch Pride and Prejudice mindlessly. Don't watch Pride and Prejudice the way you looked, I hope you looked, and drank in our foliage this fall. Dorothy and I have been oohing and aahing more in the last two weeks. Every time you go somewhere, I mean I haven't seen such brilliant and changing colors in years. You turn a corner, we had two days up in the Poconos, and we were just constantly going, we were taking our breath away. And what can you do with God's handiwork, unspoiled by man?

39:11 You can open up your soul by means of your eyes and just let it all come in with no filter, with no barrier. The only barrier would be you don't worship God's creation. That's the only barrier. And there were times you almost felt like you wanted to fall down and worship, it was so beautiful.

39:28 That's the only barrier. You open up your eyes and you open up your soul and you let it wash over your soul. What I was saying, you don't do that with pride and prejudice. Pride and prejudice has a worldly philosophy of romantic love that will cripple you from thinking biblically about human love between a man and a woman.

39:52 Don't let pride and prejudice conform you crumbling eyes to a beautiful cage of heart. and we'll come back to that in the next lesson. to its perspective of romantic love. That's worldliness.

40:03 Pride and prejudice is produced by the world. And in God's common grace, there are some good and noble character traits in some of the characters. If you're a man, you can't be watching their push-up dresses with the top half of their breasts staring you in the face and keep a pure mind. You can.

40:26 You've either been nude or you're a liar. And for you women, does that lead you to think, well, they're so sweet and they're so nice and Darcy's such a nice guy and it doesn't seem to bother him? I'm talking plainly, folks,

40:45 because plain talk is in order. That's the world. God calls that immodest.

40:56 The producers of Pride and Prejudice say it's just a matter of reproducing period styles. Ah, but who made those styles acceptable in God? That period! God or the Prince of Darkness?

41:12 That's what I was dealing with. You don't watch movies to give yourself to them like you give yourself to the beautiful foliage in the fall where God's handiwork is stunning and captivating and you open your soul to the full impression of it as this part of God's creation speaks of His own order, His own beauty, and His own...

41:41 You don't do that! Even with, and I could have mentioned, Fiddler on the Roof and Sal...

41:54 They are the world's... They are not...

41:58 Give up your sore sweaty neck to the front and the back of this collar.

42:49 Then there's the front and the back of the tie plus some stiff... I'd love to appear before you in an open neck casual shirt.

43:00 Why don't I?

43:04 Well, for one thing, my elders would be on my case plus the deacons plus half the church. And much as in you, you live peaceably with all men. That would be reason enough.

43:16 But this whole casual egalitarianism in not only human relationships but with respect to how we dress either up or down in any setting. That's the world.

43:54 Pharaoh... I'm going in before Pharaoh.

44:05 And how I appear will let Pharaoh know my estimation of him. Clothes don't make the man but they reflect not only the man or the woman but they reflect...

44:16 Reflect our assessment here in our clothes.

44:38 Find these prints illustrated in God's general revelation.

44:46 So what's the point? It is, dear people. I think there's a pathetic naivety among too many of us. As though the world is just dabbling a little bit in this and a little bit in that.

44:58 The whole cult of the ugly and the sloppy. It grows out of a view of man and a view of life. If life is meaningless and man's nothing but an animal, then...

45:10 Then let's dress and carry ourselves to validate. That's all.

45:21 To absorb... Women are to revel in anything that makes them appear distinctively feminine in the house of God.

45:38 In that culture, it was wearing the hair a certain way, not wearing it another way. We're not imposing the cultural peculiarities but the principle is there. Grace does not negate your femininity nor your commitment that no one will have to look twice to know.

46:14 There's just some precedent in the evolutionary process. There is no determined category and we need to...

46:29 We might not be conformed to this world. So that's what I underscore. I didn't have enough time. You say, Pastor, you mean even Shirley Temple and Mr. January?

46:59 I need to listen to critically? Yes, you do. You need to watch it critically.

47:05 Yes, you do. The world is not neutral.

Amplifying Applications: The Seductive Nature of Worldly Entertainment

47:11 Now, I'm going to do something else. I've never done before. I'm going to hold up a piece from the October 30, 06 Star Legend.

47:24 All of you can't see it too clearly. This is what it says. He's got the groove. Following performance in Atlantic City, John Legend is ready to reveal his soul in Manhattan.

47:35 Never heard of John Legend but apparently he's the hottest new thing in that genre of popular music called soul. Not hip-hop but soul. Now listen to this. Listen carefully.

47:46 This is written by Claudia Perry a features writer for the Star Ledger. No indication she has any Christian influence or Christian mindset. Listen to what she says. Soul fans have been waiting for that man who can eat dinner with our mamas and daddies but knows how to get our undivided attention when the folks aren't around.

48:13 See what it's saying? He can appear innocent. Sing songs that mom and dad sit there and say, oh, this is great. But when mom and dad go, because they're really not with it like you younger ones are, he can get your attention.

48:28 He can give you the hot stuff.

48:31 Listen. Listen now. Listen. I read on.

48:34 You have to know, that's the name of one of his hit songs, Legend's simple plea for any good girl to step out on her man to be bad with him is one of the most engaging cheating songs in a long time. It's a cheating song but it's engaging. It draws you in. Now listen further.

49:01 Unlike, say, Usher or R. Kelly, a pair of soul princes who cross the line from seductive to nasty, Legend makes the idea of breaking a commandment seem worth considering.

49:19 See what it's saying? This is not a Christian, folks. This is affected by the words Nonsense! You're kidding!

49:42 Sing yourself! It gets into your soul and it molds you and it shapes you and it's setting you up! You know what this guy's doing? He can sing his seductive It makes the idea of breaking a commandment seem worth considering.

50:16 Even when it's not raw, aggressive sex that comes into your eyes, it's the gentle, tender, sweet, not too long, lingering kiss in the moonlight in that movie. What's it doing? It's embedding in your mind desires for things that are off the plate for you now. Kindling within your soul a yearning for the soft, lingering kiss.

50:50 That's the world. That's the world! That's the world, folks! Face up!

50:58 That's the world! And it's determined to squeeze you into its law.

Historical Precedent for Specificity: Ryle and the Larger Catechism

51:11 Jesus said, it's easy to build tombs to the dead prophets and kill the living ones. You get specific like I did last week and like I am this morning. Would you call Bishop Ryle a leaker? His works continue to be reprinted generation after generation.

51:32 Listen to Bishop Ryle. He's expounding the text. Lot lingered. The whole chapter's on the lingering of Lot.

51:43 These are they who get the notion into their minds that it's impossible for all believers to be so very holy and very spiritual. They allow that eminent holiness is a beautiful thing. They like to read about it in books and see it occasionally in others, but they don't think they are meant to aim it so high a standard. These are they who dread sacrifice, shrink from self-denial.

52:06 They never appear to apply our Lord's commands, take up the cross, cut off the right hand, pluck out the right eye. They can't deny our Lord used these expressions, but they never find a place for them in their religion. They spend their lives in trying to make the gate more wide and the cross more light, but they never succeed. Now listen.

52:29 Watch how he gets specific. These are they who are trying to keep in with the world. They are ingenious in discovering reasons for not separating from the world decidedly and in framing plausible excuses for attending questionable amusements and keeping up questions about the world. Cont counselors made通식 관련� exile one day the faster 10 or 100 his table and received the Sacrament another day they go to the racecourse in the morning and the operate night and there's a mobilize no he's termin nad criminals what in turn into operating love this and she will and beyond his room before oh so much a result of a civil war look the sameubee needed an end point renish room in the central waterline period everyone's pwn for our eyes. So you know what you're talking about? Yes, I do know what I'm talking about. Samson and Delilah, modern opera presents that in a way that it's pornographic. Have you seen it?

53:42 I wouldn't see it, but I read comments. And if they've enclosed a picture of Delilah, semi-nakedness, lying on the stage floor of the opera. Take the noble man of God, John the Baptist, and the centerpiece of the opera that features that is the dance of the veils and Salome dances and its pornography. And it was to some extent in Ryle's days. So he said, look at the contrast. Here they come to the Lord's table, but then they're at the race course in the morning.

54:38 The opera at night. One day they're almost in hysterics under the sermon of some sensational preacher. Another day they are weeping over some novel. Oh, he did novel reading. Yes, he did.

54:54 Because he knew that much of novel writing in that day was like ours. And he dared dress it head on. They're laboring to persuade that to mix with a little worldly company on their ground does good. Yet in their case, it does no good. It only causes. What about those catechisms that we so admire? Have you ever read the larger catechism and its answers to the questions on the Ten Commandments? What are the duties required in the Seventh Commandment? The duties required in the Seventh Commandment are chastity and body, mind, affections, words, and behavior. And the preservation

55:58 of it. And the preservation of it. And the preservation of it. And the preservation of it. And the in ourselves and others, watchfulness over the eyes and all of the senses, temperance, self-control, keeping of chaste company, modesty and apparel. You mean they taught in their churches immodest apparel was blatant violation of the Seventh Commandment? Yes, they did. Marriage by those who do not have the gift of continency, conjugal love, that is, husbands and wives giving them selves to their sexual duties. Diligent labor in our calling, shunning all occasions of uncleanness and resisting temptations thereunto. What are the sins forbidden by the Seventh Commandment? The sins forbidden are, besides the neglect of the duties required, adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, all unnatural lust, all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and the like. And the sins of the Seventh Commandment are the sins of the Seventh Commandment.

56:59 All corrupt or filthy communications or listening thereunto, lewd looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel, prohibiting of lawful and dispensing with unlawful marriages, allowing, tolerating, keeping of brothels and resorting to them, entangling vows of a single life, undue delay of marriage, having more wives or husbands than one at the same time, unjust divorce, desertion, idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company. Listen now. Lascivious songs. What's lascivious? That which excites lustful desires. Lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays, and all other provocations to or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others. Why did they go into such detail? And by the way,

58:04 every single one of us is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person. Every one of those statements has a letter with a footnote and a scripture that illustrates the principle from which that specific application was drawn. What am I doing, dear people? I'm trying to explain to you, clarify and amplify why it is essential not merely to expound the text which clearly teach that the narrow way that leads to life is the way of increasing non- conformity to and separation from the world, but to clothe those biblical principles with the specific stuff to get you thinking through the issues. I am not coming up with a partial list. Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't go here. Don't go that. No, that is legalism. But what I

Clarifying Applications: Worldly Approaches to Psychological Problems

58:58 am saying is don't approach anything that is birthed by this world as ethically and morally neutral and automatically wholesome for your soul. That's to be out of touch with reality. Furthermore, I made comment last week not only about visual things. I think I may have said something about television. In fact, I know I did. I got a letter from one brother that God smote his heart and he's had repentance this week and he's asked me to keep him accountable that he has sinned by surfing his TV and letting his eyes rest upon things they shouldn't. And he's nailed it before God and it was the specific application that God the Holy Ghost used. But I also mentioned the worldly perspective on how we deal with psychological problems, stress, tension, depression, anxiety, fears. Was I saying that it is sinful for any Christian under any circumstances to use any kind of medication to help deal with some of those problems?

60:07 I did not say that. I have never said that. There are people sitting here in this church whom I have counseled to see a doctor who might be able. I was not saying that. What I said was this. Listen carefully. The world has its ideas as to how you deal with these matters. Now, what's the matrix out of which the world's perspective on dealing with emotional, psychological problems comes? Well, it's a world system that has bought into a system that has bought into evolution. Man is not a distinct creation of God made in the image of God, a body-soul entity made by God in the image of God and accountable to God. There is no such thing as man created in innocence, man fallen in Adam, man inherently depraved, conceived in sin, with a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately weeping, wicked, a heart out of which come, Jesus said, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, pride,

61:16 evil thoughts. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Man's actions come out of his gene pool. His actions come out of his body chemistry. His actions come out of society's conditioning of him and society's pressures upon him. And if any of those things are negative, give him a pill to deal with them. That's the world's approach. So, in our country today, that has by and large rejected the biblical doctrine of creation, the biblical doctrine of the fall, the biblical doctrine of regeneration, the gift and indwelling of the Holy Spirit,

62:03 the union with Christ, we have a nation choking itself to death on Zola, that, and all of depression, about fear, about anxiety. I read through the book of Psalms, decades, and in those, and in the darker days after death, in all the, in the hours, I wanted all my

63:23 teeth to engage my God. After it's the worst, do you hear me? Don't go out and say, you ever take Zola's sinning. Pastor Martin didn't say.

63:50 Don't let the world rob you of that engagement with God that would expand, take you deeper into the fellowship of Christ and into the knowledge of his good. If there are, where it appears that there is a problem that needs the pill, the glut that goes on, because we

64:49 have a nation that is cut it from the old soil, can be addressed, be depraved to address, but in addressing it, left some of you apparently vulnerable to things. I was thinking, I was making a blanket condemnation. There is a text, though, I'd like you to take with you, 2 Chronicles 16, 11 and 12. Asa had turned from a godly king to a stubborn man, and it says that his affliction he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. In his affliction to the physician. Well, there's more that I wrestled with possibly, it's already

Conclusion: Developing Sensitivity to Worldliness

66:08 one o'clock. I hope, dear people, this rather chopped-up attempt to explain to you what I'm trying to do here, I hope, that you'll be able to explain, qualify, amplify things said last week. This attempt to get out this burden concerning the creeping, insidious worldliness. You see, some forms of worldliness are like black smoke. You can see the carbon, smell it, you recoil. Some forms of worldliness are like carbon dioxide. No taste, no smell, but deadly. God help us to develop a sensitivity. To the carbon monoxide of this world. Let's pray.

66:58 Father, we just present to you our feeble effort to try to stand against this tsunami of worldliness that presses in upon your people. We pray that you would take your word, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, make it effectual in all our hearts. We ask this for the glory of our Savior, that he may have the reward of his suffering. In the people who more and more are not conformed to this age, but transformed by the renewing of their minds. Hear us for Jesus' sake. Amen.