Separation: How to Attain, Part 2

Introduction: The Inseparable Gate, Way, and Life

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, November 19, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:11 Now please follow in your Bibles as I read once more, as we've done for nine previous Lord's Day mornings, Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. coming toward the end of what we commonly identify as the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, often described as our Lord's manifesto of the kingdom of grace which He has come to establish. The Lord Jesus, like any good preacher, not satisfied simply to inform His hearers about the nature of the kingdom. He is passionately desirous that his hearers actually enter that kingdom and having entered, come under the lifestyle of the kingdom and end up in the glorious consummation of the kingdom in the new heavens, in the new earth, compacted into the word life.

1:19 Here then our Lord's passionate command and entreaty to enter that kingdom. 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 compressed, difficult, restricted, straightened the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Let us again pray and ask the help of God the Holy Spirit in the preaching and hearing of His Word.

2:10 Our Father, Your servants have bowed before You literally hundreds of times in this place and have cried to You feeling their own utter inability to do anything of any worth in seeking to teach and preach Your Word unless You by the Holy Spirit come and do those things which it is Your prerogative alone to do. O God, do those things this morning, we pray, that Your Word may come with clarity and power, that we may be conscious that we are not just trafficking in the words of a fellow mortal,

2:57 but that our Lord Jesus Himself by His own words stands among us and speaks to us with grace and with power. Lord Jesus, come and do this, we pray, for Your praise and for our profit. Amen. Amen.

3:21 I begin this morning by asking each one of you sitting here before me a most personal and a supremely important question. The question is this. Have you come through the narrow gate, that gate of radical biblical conversion? Have you come through that gate?

3:53 And secondly, are you presently walking on that compressed, that restricted, that difficult way of radical biblical discipleship, which alone, according to Jesus, leads unto life? if you've not come through that gate and are not on that way according to Jesus, not some narrow-minded, narrow-hearted, overly dogmatic, backwoods preacher with a suit on. According to Jesus, you're on your way to destruction. But the text is clear.

4:38 There is no medial place. you either come through the narrow gate or you're found upon that broad way that leads to destruction. And if you've really come through the narrow gate, the proof is that you are walking upon the constricted, the difficult, the restricted way which alone leads unto life. And with such weighty concerns packed into these words of our Lord Jesus, I have spent nine Lord's Day mornings seeking to open up this passage.

5:18 We began by noting the inseparable relationship between the gate, the way, and life. What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder, not only in marriage, but in saving truth. Our Lord says you must come through the gate and be found upon the way, and it is only the gate and the way that lead unto life. They are inseparable.

Review: Baggage Jettisoned at the Gate and the Nature of the Narrow Way

5:45 Every hope of heaven that is not predicated upon coming through the gate of radical biblical conversion, God's regenerating grace leading to true repentance and faith, issuing in a walk upon the way of radical kingdom lifestyle. Any hopes that will end up in heaven any other way are delusive. They do not come from him who said, I am the truth. And then we considered the baggage that had to be jettisoned at the gate, the baggage of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, the baggage of self-will as the governing principle of life, the baggage of sin as our willful practice and pattern of life,

6:36 and the baggage of the world and its ways as the molding influence upon our lives, that baggage must be discarded or there's no entrance into that turnstile, that narrow gate of true, thorough, radical, biblical conversion. And then focusing upon the principle that the restricted way, the compressed way, the straightened way. Straightened does not mean the opposite of crooked. It means pressured way.

7:08 It's the word used for tribulation and to persecute and to pressure. And Jesus said the narrow gate leads into this pressured way. And the pressured way is nothing more but nothing less than a carrying out into the totality of our lifestyle the issues dealt with at the gate. So we have seen from the Scriptures if at the gate we get rid of the baggage of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency as the ground of our acceptance with God.

7:44 The narrow way is the way of clinging to Christ alone in the death grip of faith that He alone is the ground of our acceptance with God and the source of our strength to please our God. If at the gate we jettison self-will as the governing principle, then the way is nothing more or less than the serious pursuit of a life of universal gospel obedience. If Christ has become my master, he is my master not in word only, but I seek in the strength and power of his spirit to obey all things whatsoever he has commanded.

8:31 And if at the gate there is a throwing away of the baggage of the practice of sin as a pattern of life, then the narrow way, the restricted way, is the way of a serious pursuit of universal gospel holiness. taking seriously the word of God that says you shall be holy for I am holy and without holiness no man shall see the Lord. He that practices sin is of the devil. He that says he knows him and walks in darkness is a liar and does not the truth.

9:10 And then fourthly, if at the gate there is a throwing away of the baggage of the world as our companion and as the molding influence, then the restricted way is the way of increasing non-conformity to and separation from the world and its ways as the pattern of my thought and of my life. And because pastorally I believe that it is this fourth issue that is most needed among us at this time in our life together, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time demonstrating from the Word of God that indeed the narrow way is marked, not theoretically or idealistically, but practically and really in the life of everyone on that way,

10:07 by this increasing non-conformity to and separation from the world and its ways as the molding influence upon my life. And so I expounded the seven or eight major New Testament passages that demonstrate this fact and pleaded with you, with all of my being, to take seriously that if you are not earnestly seeking an ever-growing nonconformity to and separation from the world and its ways, you have little in your Bible to assure you that you're on your way to heaven. Because it is the narrow, this constricted, this pressured, restricted way that leads to life.

Pastoral Counsel 1: Constantly Remind Yourself of Your Identity in Christ

10:57 And if you want to get to heaven while still dancing with the world, again, you are deluded. Well, having laid out those things, I began last Lord's Day to give what I called some practical pastoral counsel to help us in this pursuit of increasing nonconformity to and separation from the world, believing that there are not a few of you who are on that way. And with all of your heart you long that a description of your life would indeed be those words John, Mary, Harry, Pete, Sally is more and more separate from this world.

11:43 Less and less conformed to this world. And so my first counsel to you was simply this, that you must constantly remind yourself of your true identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Constantly remind yourself of your true identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ. And looking at John 15, 18 to 20 and John 17, 14 and 16, we saw in those words, according to Jesus, we have been chosen out of the world.

12:20 We have been chosen to be radically different from the world. A difference that is observable and discernible to the point where the world sees it and reacts in hatred against us. so it's not theoretical it's not idealistic it is experiential it is existential it is real according to Jesus that's the identity of his people chosen out of the world chosen to be radically different from the world and according to Matthew 5.14 chosen to be the light of the world that by that lifestyle that shows that the tap roots of its joy,

13:07 that all the things that are important to it are drawn from another source other than this world system. This world as the created order of human beings in human affairs, now in rebellion against God and under the permissive will of the devil. This world with fallen human nature, making the outgoings of human thought, human feeling, and human action its own end in all things. You must constantly remind yourself, this world has no legitimate claim over me if I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ.

13:50 And when it says, listen up, we're going to play the tune and we want you to dance, you can stick your fingers in your ears and say, I'm under no obligation to dance to your tune. when it picks up his drum and begins to bang and say, you must march to the beat of our drum. You can say, beat till your arm is weary until you break your drumstick. I don't march to the beat of your drum.

14:14 Why? I have been chosen by Jesus Christ out of this world in free sovereign grace. And I have had given to me by that Lord who's chosen me out of this world all the privileges of His grace and the gift of His Spirit. And I have a source of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit that you know nothing of.

14:38 I do not need your fountains to satisfy my thirst. I don't need your table of goodies in order to satisfy my hunger. I found the water of life. I found the bread of life.

14:53 I drink at a different fountain. I eat at a different table. That's who I am. And I'm determined that I shall live consistently with my identity.

Pastoral Counsel 2: Commit to Serious Bible Reading and Meditation

15:05 Then we looked at 1 Peter 2, 11. We'll not go back over that ground. As time permits, I want to address two more pastoral counsels. Are you serious?

15:17 Are you really persuaded that Jesus died to deliver you out of this present evil age? Are you really persuaded that this is your identity and this is the passion of your heart to be less and less conformed to this world, more and more separate from it? Then here's my second counsel. You must commit yourself to and jealously maintain a pattern of serious Bible reading and meditation.

15:53 You must commit yourself to and jealously maintain a pattern of serious Bible reading and meditation.

16:07 You say, I can't believe it, Pastor. You can talk to us about the need to read our Bibles.

16:14 Why? Well, because the passages that deal with this matter drive me to do so. And I want you to turn with me now to Romans chapter 12.

The Means of Mind Renewal: Word and Spirit (Romans 12:2)

16:29 The apostle has laid out in breathtaking dimensions the whole spectrum of God's gracious salvation in Jesus Christ in the first 11 chapters of this letter. And then in chapter 12 in verse 1 he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, those mercies packed into all of the previous 11 chapters, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your spiritual or rational service, and be not fashioned according to this world or this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God Now notice here the contrast The opposite of being conformed to or being squeezed into the mold of the world

17:29 is being transformed by the renewal of our minds. Do not be fashioned, do not be pressed into the mold of this world, but be transformed how? By the renewing of your mind. The transformation that is the opposite of conformation to the world goes on by a process of mind alteration.

18:03 See the language? but be continually transformed by the renewing of your mind. To the extent that my mind is renewed, I will be transformed. No more, no less.

18:22 If I would be transformed, as opposed to being molded by this world, transformed to what end? that I may prove, that is, that I may work out in my experience what is the will of God, which is the good, the acceptable, and the perfect. That is, that I may please God while living in this world with all of its vice-like pressures upon me to squeeze me into its mold, which is the opposite of the will of God. Remember 1 John chapter 2?

19:01 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, lust of the eyes, vain glory of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away in the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever.

19:20 The opposite of being molded by the world, giving vent to the lust that marked this world, is doing the will of God. You have the same contrast here. Be not fashioned according to this world, but transformed by the renewing of the mind, that your life on the narrow way will be marked by one who is doing, not the will of the world, insinuating its will upon you, through carelessness, through thoughtlessness, through a lack of discernment and discrimination, leave the world to do its work, and it will. But by an ongoing continuous transformation of your mind, you find yourself in the will of God, doing what is well-pleasing unto God.

20:17 And here the apostle uses the word mind for reason or rational faculty in its moral quality and activity. There is to be a renewing of the mind, my rational faculty in its moral and ethical judgments. And he says that must undergo a constant work of renewal. In other words, Paul is telling us that if we would not be conformed to this world, our minds are going to be the Baghdad where all the warfare occurs.

20:57 it's in the area of the mind that the powers of the world concentrate and it's in that area that we must undergo a constant renewing work if we don't we'll be conformed to this world we'll be squeezed into the mold of the world therefore settle it your mind how you think how you perceive reality, how you perceive the influences that impinge upon you from every source in the workplace, in the entertainment field, what you listen to, what you read, what you perceive, all of that,

21:43 everything that comes filtering through the mind as the mind makes judgments about whether or not this would be pleasing to God or not pleasing to God. It's in that area that the world seeks to do its work, and we must do our work. And that's the work of mind renewal, sanctified mind alteration. Now, that leads to the crucial question. What is the means ordained by God to effect this renewal of the mind? What means has God ordained for this constant mind renewal?

The Means of Mind Renewal: Word and Spirit (Psalm 1, John 17, 2 Corinthians 3)

22:25 well Psalm 1 let's look at it together Psalm 1 the opening words of the Psalter blessed perfectly happy content with divine holy contentment is the man that and then we have the three negatives walks not in the counsel of the wicked See any overtones of Romans 12? walks not in the molding influence of a world in which wicked men float their wicked notions about life, about good, about bad, about the desirable,

23:13 float their notions about personal morality, about social morality, float their notions about everything. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners in other words stands where sinners stands and looks out upon life as sinners look out upon life blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers in other words sit where they sit and have his mental faculties take the role of being God and the arbiter of truth and right and wrong No, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law doth he meditate day and night.

24:05 In other words, the blessed man is the one who knows something of what it is in the totality of life to have God's Word shaping, molding, fashioning, renewing his mind. it's not an oblique and an occasional influence when he comes to church or when he may occasionally have something he calls devotions but he's committed to a lifestyle in which the word of God is continually exerting its pressure upon his mind, his judgment his understanding of reality

24:52 and that one is the one whom God says is the blessed one. And that word for meditate is the word that in its root means to mumble.

25:06 You watch this guy walking around and mumbling. You see, his contact with the word of God is not something he does like a good Catholic that runs through her beads and says, I had my devotions. I went through my prayer beads no no what he read he now is seeking to carry with him and as he goes about his work during the day what's he mumbling about he's seeking to bring back in a kind of mental regurgitation what the cow does with her grass and to assimilate it and to break it down and to take it into his system

25:51 And in other words, he's convinced the moment I let my mind be passive, the world will be there to squeeze me into its mold of thinking. I won't let it do so. And when his mind is not legitimately engaged in matters of his calling or her calling, the mother who's got to run out back and find out why the kid is screaming like his head was chopped off when all he did was skin his knee. When the mind is not legitimately engaged in the responsibilities of life or in legitimate avocations and rest, the mind is continually reverting to the Word of God to exert its influence upon it by the renewing of your mind.

26:41 That's how we're transformed as our mind is renewed by the instrument of the Word of the living God. To get the substance of it into our souls by self-reflection. Thy Word have I hid in my heart is what we sang tonight. In Psalm 119, verses 59 and 60, notice again what the psalmist says.

27:14 119, verses 59 and 60. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto your testimonies. I made haste and delayed not to observe your commandments. What he read and where he saw that the Word of God would take him, here was the path marked by Scripture.

27:36 Here was the path he was in. He said, wait a minute, I've got to turn my feet to this. You see, he was not just reading his Bible to say he had his devotions. He was seeking the renewal of his mind concerning the path of his life, concerning the specific elements of his day, what he did with his time, where he went with the feet of his energies, where he went with the feet of his words and his thoughts.

28:04 He was experiencing the renewal of His mind. Psalm 119 verses 4 and 5. You have commanded us your precepts that we should observe them diligently. Oh, that my ways were established to observe your statutes.

28:26 He sees a discrepancy with what the Word of God says He ought to be and should be. and what he is, and he cries to God. This is the process of meditation and reflection and the commitment then to implementation. If we're to experience the renewal of our mind, which is essential if we're not going to be conformed to this world, you and I must commit ourselves to and jealously maintain a pattern of serious Bible reading and meditation.

29:03 Psalm 1. Now turn to John 17. John 17. Here's our Lord's prayer for His own.

29:13 We have reason to believe that this may well be the contours of how He prays for us even now at the right hand of the Father. And here in John 17, 14 to 18, notice His prayer. I have given them your word and the world hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world whenever there is a saving embrace of the word of Jesus the world hates those who thus embrace it because they are no longer fundamentally, basically of this world That's what Jesus said is true of all His own.

30:01 And if it's not true of you, true of me, we're not His own. He's not praying for us. How people can mess this up when His words are so plain. I've given them Your Word.

30:13 The world hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that You should take them from the world, but that you should keep them from the evil or from the evil one. Here our Lord assumes that in this world there is a malevolent devil who operates through this world system of men and things and he's praying, Father, I'm not asking you to take them out of all this and bring them home with me, but I'm asking you that while I leave them there, they should be preserved and kept from the evil one. Verse 16, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

30:57 He's getting the message through again. Now notice, sanctify them. Set them apart unto a life that is pleasing to you, Father. Sanctify them.

31:08 How? In the truth, thy word is truth. Sanctify them in the truth. And where is the truth located?

31:18 In the word of the living God. That's where it's located. Jesus is praying that that Word will be effectual more and more to set us apart unto God from the world and from its evil and from the evil one who's behind the evil that is in the world. His prayer is that the Word will be the effectual instrument of our sanctification.

31:46 Dr. Donald Carson has some helpful comments on this passage. Listen to them. Doubtless Christians in John's day were forced to ponder the implications of this prayer.

31:59 So also were those who were contemplating the possibility of becoming Christians. The cosmic spiritual nature of the conflict is laid bare. The followers of Jesus are permitted neither the luxury of compromise with the world that is intrinsically evil and under the devil's power, nor the safety of disengagement from the world. But if the Christian pilgrimage is inherently perilous, the safety that only God Himself can provide is assured, as certainly as the prayers of God's own Son will be answered.

32:39 It's a marvelous turnphrase. The followers of Jesus are permitted neither the luxury of compromise with the world, nor the safety of disengagement from the world. We are called upon to live out our days in this world system, not just on planet earth, but in this system of men and things alienated from God in opposition to God, framing all of its life by its anti-God, its anti-Christ disposition. so that every thread in the fabric of life, apart from a few threads of God's common grace, are devilish threads.

33:31 All of its voices are voices to entice us and draw us away from the living God whom the devil hates and who actively, Paul says in Ephesians 2, actively works in the sons of disobedience. That verb energeo is the same one he uses concerning God's work in believers. God is at work in you. Energeo, to will and to work.

33:57 And as surely as God works in the mysterious operations of the spirit upon the human spirit and mind, in regeneration and in sanctification, so the devil is at work. And he has all the genius of all the arts and all the sciences and all of the impulses and all of the desires and all of the capacities and their one massive energy to bring people into alignment with Himself. And it's constantly after you, child of God, to squeeze you into its mold. But you have a Savior who's praying for you.

34:34 And He praying Father Father sanctify them in the truth Thy Word is truth in the midst of that mess in the midst of that world that is like the compactor that takes cars and squashes them down to little 18 globs of metal that the world and it's going to squeeze you in its mold unless you are undergoing a constant, serious process of mind renewal based not upon some kind of New Age meditation where you cross your legs and lift up your hands and let your mind go blank. No, but where you've got your eyes upon your Bible

35:21 and your heart's engaged with your Bible And you're seriously reading your Bible. You're meditating, assimilating, taking with you the truth of your Bible. Seeking by the grace of God to undergo that mind renewal by which alone you will be transformed rather than conformed to this world. Mr. Carson goes on to say, commenting on verse 17, This can only mean that the means Jesus expects His Father to use as He sanctifies His Son's followers is the truth.

36:03 The Father will immerse Jesus' followers in the revelation of Himself in His Son. He will sanctify them by sending the Holy Spirit to guide them into the truth. 15.13 Jesus followers will be set apart from the world reserved for God's service in so far as they think and live in conformity with the truth the word of revelation supremely mediated through Christ himself the truth and the word incarnate the revelation now embodied in the pages of our Bibles In practical terms, no one can be sanctified or set apart for the Lord's use without learning to think God's thoughts after Him.

36:57 Without learning to live in conformity with the Word that He has graciously given. By contrast, the heart of worldliness is what makes the world the world. It is its fundamental suppression or denial of the truth.

37:18 Worldliness is framed by a denial of the truth. We are called upon for this constant renewal of our minds by this exposure to the truth that we might not be squeezed into the world's mold. And then one other passage in answering the question, by what means do we experience this mind renewal? We've seen from these two texts, it is by means of the Word.

37:49 Not an oblique contact with the Word, but that contact that can be called reflective, meditative, assimilative, in which we are determined that the Word will get inside of us, shape our thinking, and thereby shape our moral judgment, the renewal of our minds. 2 Corinthians 3, in verse 18. In the midst of a section where Paul is setting forth the glory of the new covenant in contrast with the old, both had glory, one a passing glory, one a permanent glory. And in that context, this is what he says.

38:29 verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 3 Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed. Same Greek word as you have in Romans 12 too. Be ye continually transformed by the renewing of your mind.

39:00 And what is the instrument for that mind renewal? The Word of God. Now we learn not just the bare Word are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the Lord the Spirit. The Lord the Spirit is the transforming agent.

39:21 Now He works in conjunction with the Word But the Word without the attendant ministry of the Spirit will effect no transformation. So in answer to the question, how do we undergo this mind renewal that is essential if we are to be transformed rather than being conformed to the world? The full answer is, it is the Word and the Spirit. It is the Spirit working by and with the Word.

39:55 It is the Word under the present powerful influence of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, my pastoral counsel to you is this. If you are serious about increasing in your nonconformity to the world and in your separation from the world, you must commit yourself to and jealously maintain a pattern of serious Bible reading and meditation. There's my case for that counsel.

Application of Counsel 2: Prioritize Bible Reading Over Worldly Distractions

40:31 Now my application. My dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to settle in your heart and will that this is the only way. now I know that there's a host of things that cry for and constantly demand the attention of your mind there are those legitimate things that are part of fulfilling your duties and callings in life you can't do without the engagement of your mind I remember as a young Christian shortly after God saved me and God gave me an unusual experience of his special nearness. It was just a kiss from the Lord to assure me that

41:17 I was really his and he was mine after so many false starts. And I could almost feel like the Lord was at my elbow, almost tangibly feeling. And I remember when I started doing donkey work for a godly Christian contractor where I was shoveling gravel and mixing cement and the rest and came home one day, deeply grieved, and said to my godly mother, Mom, I don't know what's happened. Whether I'm becoming baxlin, I went a whole period today of 15 minutes and I didn't think about Jesus.

41:52 I was grieved. I hadn't thought about the Lord Jesus one period, 15 minutes. She said, well, son, what were you doing? I said, well, I was putting the cement, in the cement mixer, and I was shoveling in the sand. She said, son, did you have to count how many shovels? Yes. And did you have to make sure that while that was mixing you didn't automatically put your she said well son God wanted you at that point to be thinking about nothing but mixing cement mixing mud, mixing the mortar he didn't want you thinking about him and that was so liberating and it was a fundamental lesson that I learned you don't go loading yourself with false guilt when what you are doing in the will of God demands all of your powers mental included So I understand that.

42:40 However, in addition to those legitimate demands and cries for our mental energy from our callings in life, here's all the other things saying, give me your mind. The newspaper, the TV, the radio, the computer with its emails and its capacity for instant messaging, the blogs that would be interesting to read the websites it would be interesting to visit the CDs that I know if I don't listen to I won't be with it the iPods, the telephone, the cell phone and on and on and on and on and on we go so that the mind has no time

43:29 for serious Bible reading that is reflective and meditative. And it gets drunk with impulses coming in so that ten minutes of total silence are torture for many.

43:48 Don't know what to do with silence. Child of God, listen to me. I'm going to be blunt. If you're not prepared to rear back on your hind legs and in the name of Christ say, my Bible says, be not conformed to this world.

44:10 I'm determined that the world will not squeeze me into its mold. My Bible says, the only way that's going to happen is if I undergo a continuous process of mind renewal. And my Bible tells me that mind renewal goes on by meditating in the law of God day and night. My Savior is praying that I be sanctified by the truth and His Word. The Word of God is truth. And if I'm going to, by the Word and the Spirit, be transformed more and more into the image of my Savior who said, you are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He took none of His molding influence from this world. He took it all from another world. And that's to be our

44:58 standard. That's to be our goal. And you say, I am determined to have this mind renewal. I don't care what I've got to do with my radio, my newspaper, my TV, my iPod, my telephone, my cell phone, my CD. I'm ready to consider all of these things utterly expendable.

45:21 Now I hasten to say, lest I be treated like some kind of a thing from who knows where. I acknowledge that not one of the things I've mentioned, and a host of other things, is sinful in itself. There's no devil in an iPod. There's no demon in an iPod.

45:47 There's no demon in the TV. I know enough about the theology of God's world and God's gift to be able to say, there's another one of the things I've mentioned that in its proper place cannot be a blessing, cannot be a means to make life simpler and easier and more cheerful. Okay? So do you all hear me?

46:10 Right? However, for many of you, those things are the avowed enemy of your soul. because the time spent with them filling your mind with mental junk makes it impossible for you to slip away for a half an hour and open your Bible and seriously, reflectively, meditatively absorb the Word unto the renewal of your mind. You're antsy after ten minutes When you don't have something stuck in your ears, whether it's a phone, whether it's your earbuds, whether it's your CDs, whether it's your iPod, you know it!

47:01 I'm describing you! And you're still fighting me.

47:09 Well, when he let up, I won't let up, because I want to see you on the narrow road that gets you to heaven.

47:21 This world says your life is not complete without these things being an integral part of your life. And the world has no right to tell you that.

47:34 My life is very complete. I don't have an iPod. I don't have a Walkman. I work out on my treadmill and I pray.

47:44 Or I listen to a tape. I don't need to have music dinning into my head day and night.

47:55 Dear people, God is not going to come down and rewrite His Word because you live in the gadget age. He ain't going to do it. And if you are going to take seriously the imperative of grace, be not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind. You've got to recapture the energy of your mind to do this.

48:25 And that means you've got to make some serious commitments to and jealously guard time for serious Bible reading. I urge you, take this Lord's Day after your meal and some rest and sit down and honestly say, what am I going to do to take myself in hand? For some of you, I suggest that you commit yourself before God, before your wife, before your parents, and say no Bible, no newspaper. No Bible, no TV.

49:00 No Bible, no emailing, unless it's business responsibility. No Bible, no telephone chatting. No looking at blogs. No Bible.

49:13 None of the toys. I'm done. I want to get to heaven as a man, as a woman, as a young man, a young woman who's not being fashioned according to this world.

Pastoral Counsel 3: Constantly Pray for Spiritual Discernment

49:30 That's my counsel to you. Then I've got time for one more briefer counsel this morning. Then we'll finish up tonight, God willing. And what is it?

49:38 It's this. If you're serious, if you're serious, not only must you constantly remember your identity as a true disciple of Christ, not only must you determine and jealously guard time for serious Bible reading and meditation. Thirdly, you must constantly pray for spiritual discernment to see the things of the world for what they really are and not what they appear to be. Constantly pray for spiritual discernment to see the things of the world for what they really are and not what they merely appear to be.

50:27 God says in 1 John 2.15, Love not the world, now listen carefully, neither the things of the world. Then John gives an example of some of those things, but that's not an exhaustive list. Neither the things of the world.

50:45 That assumes that I'm going to identify what is a thing of the world. That I have the moral discretion to say, This is not just an innocent cultural thing. This is a worldly thing. This perspective, this attitude, this example, this standard is an expression of the world system in alienation from and in opposition to God and under the control of the devil.

51:17 This is not an innocent morally neutral thing. love not the world neither the things that are of the world John is assuming that there is discernment to know what is a thing of the world that I may not love it and that's why we need to constantly pray for spiritual discernment to see the things of the world for what they really are and not what they merely appear to be now think with me From his first appearance in the garden that arch fiend of God and man the devil presents a false face in his attempt to allure Adam and Eve into sin Remember how he came to Eve

The Deceitful Nature of the World, Sin, and the Devil

52:12 As God said, casting doubt upon the word of God. But this is where he appears as Eve's advocate for good. He says to her, God knows that if you eat of that tree, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. I'm your advocate Eve the truth is God's appeared and spoken to your husband and he has conveyed God's word to you that the reason for the prohibition of that tree is really God wants to maintain some selfish turf he doesn't want to rival Eve I'm your advocate Eve

52:57 God appeared to you as your supreme benefactor saying, Adam, don't touch that tree. Don't eat of that tree. And the day you eat, dying you will die. And he obviously passes on that fact to Eve so that Adam conveys God in his benevolence, wants us to live under the canopy of life in all that life means in communion with him and in his world.

53:24 And he has put us to the test with respect to that tree. don't touch, don't eat that tree in the day we eat it will not be in our best interest and the devil comes and says no, I'm your advocate Eve it is in your best interest you will come to a level and to a category of knowledge that God has withheld from you and that's his method again and again and remember he's called the prince of this world the God of this world he has this world system And John says in 1 John 5, 19, the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. That world out there is not neutral, folks. God help us to believe it.

54:09 It's out to squeeze you into its mold, which is the anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-holiness, anti-spiritual progress mold. and we need to cry to God for discernment that we may see things for what they really are and not for what they appear to be think again of what the scripture says in Hebrews 3.13 lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin sin that would propose itself through this world system is deceitful in deceit you promise what you can't give. You give what you haven't promised. There's dishonesty, deceitfulness of sin.

54:56 Then the scripture says that the devil is called in Revelation 12, 19, the deceiver of the whole earth. And then the Bible says the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And though it is not that way where its power has been dethroned, the remnants of sin in us are still deceitful and desperately wicked when you've got a deceitful devil and you've got deceitful sin and a deceitful heart how stupid it is to look out at something in the world and assume well it's just an innocent thing we've got a three fold cartel of deceit seeking to get us to believe things are what they appear

Praying for Discernment (Philippians 1:9-10) and Tracing Trends

55:43 to be not what they really are. And so what is our prayer to be? I know of no passage that I have found more helpful than Philippians chapter 1. I would urge you to turn there with me and get this passage through the eye gate as well as the ear gate.

56:06 What does Paul pray for these precious saints at Philippi? Verse 9, this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and void of offense unto the day of Christ. The ESV renders it that you may approve what is excellent, the NIV, that you may discern what is best. and the exegetes go back and forth on the precise significance but with those different translations you get the idea he said I'm praying your love may abound more and more in the realm of knowledge accurate perception

56:54 and discernment so that you may distinguish things that differ you may approve the things that are excellent you may discern what is best that your love will abound in knowledge and discernment that you may approve and discern what is best. Now bring that back to Romans 12 too. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

57:30 What kind of a mind? A mind that is furnished with knowledge and discernment, able to distinguish things that differ, that you may approve the excellent, discern what is best, see through issues. The world often presents an open, generous hand and a smiling face, and it says this is for your good, when in reality it is to our spiritual detriment. in an excellent book my judgment an excellent book called Dining with the Devil by Oz Guinness in which he's addressing particularly those things in the megachurch movement and in the user friendly

58:17 concept of church ministry that are dangerous and unbiblical he says the following things that I have found very very helpful he said in seeking to sort out trends and actions trace the bouncing ball. And what he meant by that was this.

58:38 A common reason many people are uncritical is they see a trend as simple, straight, and short, almost like the flight of a missile. But in fact, trends are more like the bounce patterns of a ball in a pinball machine. It's been a while since I've stood behind a pinball machine, but the ball doesn't come here and down. It bounces along the way.

58:57 Now he says, trends are like the ball in a pinball machine. Where it comes from, where it's bouncing to, and what it's hitting on the way are more important in interpreting a trend than seeing precisely where it is at any particular moment. On the one hand, this means we must be able to trace a trend backward and ask where it came from and why. Unless we do so, the power of the new becomes self-evident and mesmerizing.

59:27 we then become too tongue-tied to ask questions and find ourselves swept into the depths of uncritical acceptance. On the other hand, we must be able to trace a trend forward and ask where it's going and with what result. The same trend that we may consider acceptable in the light of its origins may be anathema in the light of its outcome. The reason is that the opposite of bad is not necessarily good.

59:53 There's an ethic of results as well as intention. As Martin Luther warned, many of our human efforts are like those of a drunken peasant who clambers back on his donkey only to fall off on the other side. What's he saying? He's saying the world, the world, and what it's doing to squeeze us into its mold that ultimately takes us away from Christ and the word of Christ and the ways of Christ and the triumphs of the kingdom of Christ.

60:22 It's a vicious war that we're in, dear people. And when we see a trend that perhaps good people justify and promote, if we don't ask, where's it coming from? I always have said over the years, who's its mama? I like to check its mama.

Examples of Worldly Trends: Worship Wars and Visual Images

60:40 Who's in mama? And who's his papa? What's giving birth to this trend? For example, we talk about the worship wars.

60:51 You're all aware. Here in this very county this morning, you've got places claiming to be biblical where you've got neophytes who can half play more than six chords, who are part of a worship band leading the worship of God's people.

61:10 Tragic. All you need to do is say, what gave birth to this? Where did it come from? Did it come out of a mighty visitation of the Holy Spirit upon evangelical churches in America in the last 30 years?

61:26 Revivals in which men fell upon their faces in conviction of sin and cried out to a holy, righteous, sin-hating God who sent His Son to die for sinners, that God would have mercy upon them? issuing in groups of people who wanted to sit and listen to preaching for two and three hours and go home and pray for two and three hours. We're talking about the fruits of mighty visitations of the Spirit of God. Is that what has given birth to this nonsense? No.

62:01 It's a backslidden church made up many of half-converted people who have been told, raise your hand, walk an aisle, pray a prayer, you're saved. And because they got addicted to musical forms in the world in the 60s, they've now demanded those forms invade and take over. The church, I don't like its mama or its papa.

62:26 And where will it lead to? Well, you see where it's led to. In many places. No more Sunday night service.

62:34 Why? People have no appetite for the Word of God. They have no passion to meet in the special presence of God promised to His gathered people.

62:46 They offer in place there to Saturday night service so your Sunday won't be interrupted with watching football and going to the shore. We already see where it's going, folks.

62:58 That's why I said what I did earlier in the worship service. In some of our circles, brethren are buying into this notion. That the dominant note of every gathering for worship should be exuberant joy. I challenge that from the Word of God.

63:15 It is not biblical to say that the dominant note of every gathering for worship should be exuberant joy. You're out on a limb without your Bible. Did exuberant joy ought to mark our worship? Yes.

63:32 but solemn penitence and brokenness of heart for God says to this man will I look even to him who is of a poor and a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word.

63:49 Dear people, this is what I'm pleading with you. Don't uncritically accept things for what they appear to be. But ask God for discernment to see what they really are. Do what Mr. Guinness has said.

64:06 Trace the thing to its origins. Trace it to its ultimate results. For example, and with this I'll close, I'll just touch on them, the obsession with visual images in the church.

64:21 Arthur Hunt's book, The Vanishing Word, goes into this in great detail and with, as far as I'm concerned, unanswerable and compelling biblical logic. Paganism lives its life on the image. Revealed religion in the old and the new covenant has its life sustained by word. Why are we not flashing images up on the wall?

64:46 Because we don't want to spoil your ability to understand and to be thrilled with and be able to have the mental muscle to give attention to the Word of God, to follow linear thought and logical structure the way much of the Word of God comes to us. And where is this obsession with the visual image going? We've already seen where it's gone in many places. And the sky's the limit.

65:17 And now we have so-called evangelical dance troupes dancing out biblical themes and we have biblical so-called evangelical evangelistic acting troops and mind groups and all the rest folks that's where it's going until what will be left will have no semblance with biblical religion.

Final Exhortation: Don't Uncritically Swallow Worldly Influences

65:42 Could touch on many other things. Time is gone. Dear people I beg you if you're serious if you're serious about increasing nonconformity to and separation from this world, don't uncritically swallow everything.

66:00 Don't do it. Don't go with the flow. Everybody else is giving their kids a cell phone. So what?

66:11 Do you know it takes a mature person to manage a cell phone wisely? You give it to immature teenagers? You're stupid. Sorry.

66:23 You're stupid. You're naive. You think that nothing's going to be, they're going to use that for nothing but holy ends in a disciplined, chastened way? You've got your head in the sand, my friend.

66:36 Same thing with the music you allow them to listen to. I heard this week about a young man who spoke to his mother, and you know what he said? He's turned away from the heritage of his Christian upbringing. I didn't make this up.

66:50 And he said to his mother, Mom, you know what turned me away? Put me on the road that I'm on now. He said it was music.

66:59 He said it all started when I began to listen to some of the more edgy CCM Christian rock. And I got an appetite for the rock beat and the rock ethos. Then I had to have more and more until what I needed and wanted went beyond what I could even get in the CCM.

67:23 Here's a young man that says his soul is in its present state because he thought medium and message could be separated. They can't, my friend. There are certain media by which divine truth and sacred realities can't be properly conveyed.

67:45 think, think, think, think. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. God, help us all. Let's pray.

Closing Prayer

68:07 Our Father, at times we feel like the little boy who stuck his finger in the leaky dyke. but you're a mighty God. You said that no word from you shall be void of power. Oh God, take the things we've reflected upon today and write them upon our hearts.

68:29 Don't let your people in this place, our Father, be conformed to this world because they allow the things that clamor for their minds to crowd out the commitment to serious Bible study and meditation. Oh, God, we pray, help us, help us all. Deliver us from an uncritical, naive, taking into ourselves the things that swirl around us without thinking through where they come from, where they lead, what's behind them. Oh, God, have mercy upon us.

69:07 For those who are totally immersed in this world, we pray that you would wrench them out of it by sovereign grace and give them to taste and know the blessedness of what is to be found in Jesus seal your word to our hearts we pray in his name Amen