True Conversion: Necessary Difficult and Rare

The Ultimate Question and the Authority of Jesus

0:02 This sermon was read on Sunday evening, September 27, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now may I urge you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the seventh chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew's Gospel and the seventh chapter, and follow as I read what to some, perhaps many, are very familiar words spoken by our Lord Jesus, Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14.

0:51 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. Enter in thereby, for narrow is the gate, and straightened or compressed or hedged up is the way that leads unto life. And few, and few, few are they that find it.

1:34 There are many things in life concerning which ignorance or indifference are neither blameworthy, nor fatal. There are many questions and issues which, if you are asked about them, you can respond by saying, I don't know, and furthermore, I don't care. And to take that attitude of I don't know, I'm ignorant, and I choose to remain ignorant of the issue raised, I don't care. To be indifferent and to remain indifferent, there are many things concerning which such willful ignorance and settled indifference are neither blameworthy nor fatal. To remain in that ignorance and indifference, nothing horrible will happen to you. However, there are some matters and relatives, and undoubtedly few indeed, concerning which ignorance or indifference are both blameworthy and fatal.

3:03 Things concerning which you don't have the luxury of saying, I don't know, and I don't care. Now, one such issue is that which is bound up in a question, such as this. What must I know? What must I do?

3:29 What must I become? If I am to be prepared to die, go to judgment, and come away from judgment with the favor of God upon me, and enter into His presence with joy forever. Remember, to put the question a bit differently, what must I know? What must I do?

4:00 What must I become in order to die? Go to judgment, and come away from the throne of judgment without hearing the words, I pray God no one in this building will hear. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Now in a very real sense, the whole Bible is given to answer this kind of ultimate question.

4:44 For we are told in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 15 with respect to Timothy that from a child or from a baby had known the Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. But tonight we want to concentrate our attention on one of those statements of our Lord in which these very issues are addressed in a most concentrated, simple, and what makes these words particularly valuable, a most vivid manner. The great issue of the Bible is the ultimate issues of death and judgment and heaven and hell. I say they are addressed in a concentrated, simple, and vivid manner. And the words to which I make reference are the words that I read in your hearing. And before we begin to unpack them and apply them, let me underscore briefly by way of introduction, first of all, a reminder concerning who it is that spoke these words.

5:59 Who said, enter in by the narrow gate? Who said that there is a wide gate and a broad way that leads to destruction? Who said there is a narrow gate and a compressed way which alone lead to life and few, only few find it? Who said this?

6:19 Some narrow-minded religious bigot? The head of some, self-made religious movement who had the notion born of arrogance and human pride that my way is right and all others are wrong? No. These words were spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the incarnate God.

6:46 They were spoken by Him who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The one who said, though heaven and earth pass away, my word shall never pass away. The one who said in John 12, 48, the words that I have spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day. These words were spoken by Him who is incarnate truth, who speaks infallible truth, who speaks truth that He Himself will bring to our attention in the day of judgment.

The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount

7:31 And furthermore, we need to underscore not only this reminder of who spoke these words, but just a word about the setting in which He uttered them. Did our Lord speak these words one day as He was simply walking down a Palestinian road with His disciples and suddenly stop and say, Oh, by the way, for anyone who listened to me, enter in by the narrow gate? They would be words of truth, no matter what setting our Lord spoke them in. But the setting in which He spoke them gives them peculiar weight and force.

8:14 They come at the end of what we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount. This great magna carter of the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in which our Lord began the sermon by delineating the marks of all the true subjects of His kingdom. In those eight blessed that we commonly call the Beatitudes, our Lord gives a composite picture of the character traits of all the sons and daughters of His kingdom. He then went on in the remainder of chapter 5 to describe the righteous standard by which the subjects of His kingdom seek to live in the power of His grace. A standard that touches the first springs of thought and desire and motive and attitude as it is dictated by the length and breadth of God's holy law. And then in chapter 6 He went on to describe how the subjects of His kingdom will carry out their more specific religious duties, their giving, their praying, their act of denial. And He says that unlike the religious leaders of the day, they will carry out their religious acts primarily with a view not to their fellow men,

9:42 but to the eye of their Father who sees in secret. So that impelling them and regulating the climate of all their religious experience is this intense verticalism. They are concerned to be well pleasing to their heavenly Father. And then in the latter half of the sixth chapter He describes the subjects of His kingdom as they seek to live in a world where they need food, they need shelter, they need clothing.

10:18 And He describes them as a people who having more specific religious exercises with a view to the eye of their Father describes them as those who amidst the necessity of food and drink and shelter are prepared to trust the loving heart of their Father to supply all of their needs. And then in chapter 7 He begins to concentrate upon some very searching issues that we'll not have time to go into. But as He's bringing them in, this sermon to a close, see what He has done. He has described the subjects of His kingdom in terms of their outstanding character traits. He has described the standards by which those subjects will live in dependence upon His grace. He has further described those subjects in their more specific religious exercises. And then He's described them living out their practical day-by-day life in the world of clothing and food and shelter as living in dependence upon the largeness of their Father's heart as they seek their Father's kingdom.

11:37 But then, like a good preacher, He is not satisfied simply to have expounded these leading lines of the dimensions of His kingdom, these leading features of the subjects of His kingdom. He is not content that even while He is preaching, all of His listeners, according to chapter 7 and verse 28, are hanging upon every word. He is speaking like none of the contemporary religious teachers who stood up and said, Rabbi Ben Ezra says, and then they mumbled on what Rabbi Ben Ezra said. Rabbi so-and-so said, and they mumbled on what Rabbi so-and-so said.

12:22 But this teacher was saying, You have heard that it was said, but I say unto you, I say unto you, I say unto you, and they were hanging upon His words. For as we read in 7.28, He taught with authority and not as their scribes. But you see, He was not content to have every eye fixed upon Him, every ear, as it were, turned forward straining to capture every word of grace and power and penetrating insight that fell from His lips.

13:00 Our Lord was concerned that His hearers not only understand these leading lines of thought concerning His kingdom, He is anxious that His hearers actually enter and become subjects of that kingdom. And so at this point, our Lord is beginning to press in upon His hearers what we would call an urgent appeal that men would now enter the very kingdom, the leading lines and dimensions of which He has described in His sermon. And rather than simply say, Enter into the kingdom, few will enter the kingdom, our Lord, also like a good preacher, turns men's eager ears into eyes. There is an Arabian proverb that says, He is the most effective speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes. And so rather than say in simple, straightforward, bland, unimaginative language, Enter the kingdom, our Lord speaks about a gate and a way that lead unto life. He speaks about a narrow gate and a compressed way.

The Necessity of True Conversion: Life vs. Destruction

14:21 He speaks about a wide gate and a broad way, which lead unto destruction. Well, having focused for a few moments upon the authority of the one who speaks the words, the setting in which they are spoken, now let us consider the teaching of these verses, particularly as they focus upon this one basic subject, the necessity, difficulty, and rarity of that real conversion which leads to eternal life. The necessity, the difficulty, and the rarity of that real conversion which leads to eternal life. And may I remind you, my hearers, this is an issue concerning which you cannot afford the luxury of ignorance nor indifference. Notice, first of all, how our Lord sets forth the necessity of that real conversion which leads to eternal life. He does so by bringing into an inseparable relationship three things.

15:43 Look at them in the text. 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 there by four narrow gates. Narrow is the gate and compressed is the way that leads unto life and few are they that find it. Now do you see what our Lord has joined together in this passage?

16:17 He has joined the narrow gate which leads to the compressed way which issues in eternal life. Now do you see the three things inseparably joined in the passage? Do you children see it? Teenagers?

16:35 Adults? Visitors? Members? If you don't see that, you'll miss the whole thrust of what our Lord is saying.

16:42 For here He is underscoring in the most clear and forceful manner imaginable the absolute necessity of a real conversion if we would enter into eternal life. He says there is a narrow gate by which alone you can enter upon a compressed way upon which alone you can move and end up with eternal life. For in this passage you will notice that life is not mere existence but in this passage life is set in apposition to what? Destruction. Wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction. There is a way which leads to destruction.

17:42 There is a way which leads to life. Life then must be the opposite of destruction. What is destruction in the Bible? It is not annihilation of the soul.

17:55 It is not the extinction of the soul and of the body such as happens in the destruction of an animal that is killed and then is burned. The animate life that expresses itself through the eyes and the personality of an animal is extinct the moment the animal dies. Take its dead body and burn it and the animal is now in a state of extinction. It has no soul.

18:31 It has animate life. It has personality but it has no entity called a soul. You see, destruction with reference to human beings is not extinction. It is not annihilation.

18:48 Destruction gathers to it like a powerful magnet all that the Bible teaches about that conscious state of existence in the age to come in which the souls and bodies of all unregenerate unconverted peoples called Gehenna or Hell. Like a magnet this word destruction gathers all ends up forever and ever and they have no rest nor night. In these gathers to it all of that Biblical language in all of its horrible reality

20:07 and the reality I remind you is always greater than the language that seeks to express it. And if the language is that frightening what must the reality be? The opposite of that destruction is life. That is the enjoyment of the immediate presence of Almighty God.

20:33 God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a state and a condition described in the Bible in these words there shall be no more crying there shall be no more pain there shall be no more death for the former things are passed away they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes there is no need of the Son for the Lamb is the light of that city and they shall serve Him day and night and His name shall be upon their foreheads all of the language of the glories of heaven are also drawn to the magnet of the word life and are embodied in it and as you sit here tonight every one of you will have as your ultimate destiny an ultimate destination destruction or life destruction with all of the horror of the biblical descriptions of that condition and place of eternal banishment in God's junkyard or life with all of the indescribable glories

21:59 of knowing God in untimmed and immediate vision experiencing communion with God in unbroken fellowship unfettered access to the tree of life unbounded energy to serve and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes and I say to you on the basis of the words of the Son of God and hear me carefully unless you are so utterly dulled in your spiritual sensitivities so totally given over to a seared conscience and a hard heart that you can think of these words altar weeping wailing gnashing of teeth the smoke of the torment ascending forever if you are so hardened and besotten and so wedded to this life that those words mean nothing and you can say well hell, shmell, who cares my friend unless you've come to such a frightening state then surely there is something in you that says yes at the end of my pilgrimage I do not want destruction I want life I don't enjoy pain

23:27 I don't enjoy darkness and suffering and the company of the ugly and the grotesque and the evil yes, I want life then mark it down my friend there's only one way to get to life you've got to get through the narrow gate and on to the compressed way and you have it on the word of Jesus do you see it do you see it so it's not a matter of going out saying well the preacher spoke condensingly he spoke earnestly but I don't agree with him my friend hear me it is Jesus enter the gate the issues in life miss the gate you'll miss life destruction will be your portion amen the necessity of that real conversion which leads to eternal life is graphically set forth by our Lord Jesus by this inseparable relationship between the gate the way and the destination but its force is not only seen in that inseparable connection it is seen

The Difficulty of Forsaking Self-Sufficiency and Self-Righteousness

24:52 by the fact that Jesus speaks in the imperative you see as his listeners are hanging upon his words he does not merely invite them as the regal king of grace he commands his hearers enter the narrow gate you see the gospel is not only a gracious invitation it is a regal and gracious command the one who holds your destiny in your hands speaks in all the plenitude of his authority in his word and says enter the narrow gate which leads to the compressed way and which issues in life well we see then in the second place not only the necessity of that real conversion which leads to eternal life but we see the difficulties of that real conversion which leads to eternal life Jesus told his hearers that though they must get through the gate and upon the way if they would enter into life there are difficulties attending everyone who would get through the gate and he says it in such simple words by describing the gate

26:20 as a narrow gate see the language enter in by the narrow gate and what makes it even more difficult is right next to the narrow gate there is a wide gate that one seems to be able to enter so easily but he says those who enter that wide gate and walk upon the broad way end up in destruction so if life is upon your heart you say then life I must have and if life can only be known by getting through a gate that is called narrow then preacher tell me from the word of God what are the difficulties connected with real conversion well according to our Lord in the sermon on the mount there are at least four basic difficulties facing every man woman boy or girl who would get through the narrow gate this will form the bulk of our remaining exposition tonight the difficulties attending that real conversion which leads to eternal life our Lord likens that gate to what in our experience probably the closest parallel is the turnstile

27:47 that you find in the New York subway system or that you find at the Brendan Byrne Arena or Shea Stadium those turnstiles by which people pass into the subway system or by which they pass into the arena or the stadium and any of you who have traveled with a lot of luggage know the difficulty you face when you come up to one of those turnstiles they've tried to design them so that the average sized person can get through but that you wouldn't have people going through three at a time if they designed them for miss five by five you'd have five going through at a time so they have designed them in such a way that even sometimes one person who's rather corpulent may have to turn sideways suck in and pull up his tummy and slip through the turnstile that's the picture of a narrow a compressed gate our Lord in using that terminology is focusing upon the difficulties I have had the experience myself when traveling with a three suitor suitcase and maybe a garment bag and then a camera bag and a briefcase coming up to one of those turnstiles if I were using some of the systems particularly in Great Britain and I can remember wondering

29:15 what shall I do pass the suitcases over shove them under but it was evident I could not get through hanging on to my three suitor my garment bag my camera bag and my briefcase no way Jose couldn't do it I had to unpack or else or I could not get through that narrow turnstile which led me into the subway system that would take me to Heathrow Airport to catch BA Flight 179 to come home to my wife so there were the difficulties well that's the picture well specifically what are the difficulties that every single sinner coming up to the gate of true conversion regardless of his background regardless of his training his education his training his cultural privileges or the lack of them regardless of the color of his skin the shape of his face his sex it matters not what are the difficulties every sinner faces here they are number one the difficulty of forsaking from the heart all self-sufficiency and all self-righteousness as the ground of obtaining eternal life that's the first and fundamental difficulty that every sinner faces at the gate of true conversion for at the gate of true conversion God demands that every sinner

30:44 the respectable sinner the unrespectable sinner the sinner reared in the Christian home the sinner reared in the den of iniquity and utter paganism the sinner who has lived a moral life the sinner who has drunk of the depths of immorality it matters not every sinner at that gate must be prepared to do what forsake from the heart and self-righteousness as the ground of obtaining eternal life you see sin has so twisted our minds that with regard to the great question how shall man be right with God all men by nature are either indifferent to that question or they have the wrong answer to it you want a picture of a man indifferent to it read Luke 12 there's a man who's done well in business and he says I'm going to tear down my barns build bigger ones I'm going to stir up my goods for many years I'm going to eat I'm going to drink I'm going to be merry I'm going to enjoy a long and prosperous and hedonistic retirement no thought about being right with God no thought of what comes at the end and that's the way all men are by nature utterly indifferent to being right with God or

32:10 they're like the Pharisee described in Luke 18 completely deceived as to the basis on which we can be right with God he comes into the temple he looks up into the face of God and he starts bragging preening his feathers he says I thank thee God I'm not as other men oh yes I must be accepted before you because you see I'm not like other men I'm not an extortioner I'm not this I'm not that I'm not even like that publican and besides that if that doesn't quite make up a grounds of righteousness acceptable Lord I've got some good brownie points I fast I tithe I do this you see what he's doing he's reflecting he's taught the law in his understanding of the grounds on which God accepts sinners and what our Lord has been teaching in the Sermon on the Mount by applying God's law to the thoughts and to the intentions of the heart to words as well as deeds to looks as well as actions by emphasizing purity of heart hungering and thirsting after righteousness living under the eye of God what has our Lord been showing us he has been showing us in the Sermon on the Mount that there is not one of us no matter how sheltered we've been no matter how much we've been blessed with Christian nurture and training

33:39 and restraints who before the searchlight of God's law does not stand guilty and condemned we've fought unclean thoughts we have felt horrible inclinations and desires and we stand guilty and condemned and we have no righteousness of our own and it is the great message of the Gospel that God has prepared a righteousness that is acceptable to him a righteousness that will pass of his own eye in the day of judgment the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees the righteousness that exceeds that upon his perfect life and his substitutionary death and at the gate God says to every sinner would you enter in and get on the way that leads to life then at the gate you must take the posture of putting down every bag in which you think you've got some things full of brownie points take off your shoulder every garment bag in which you think you've got garments

35:06 with which you can dress yourself and appear with pride in my presence you must put down your three suitor throw off your garment bag reach in your pocket and take out your little manicure packet unpack anything and everything can be the ground of your acceptance my beloved son now that's what makes conversion difficult that's what makes the gate narrow because by nature going to the three suitor going to the big garment bag of our church membership and our baptism and our religious heritage should the neighbor lady next door surely we can cling to at least the little bag in which we put the brownie points for arranging the flowers in church and being sweet to our old auntie and her my friends no God says that that gate is not

36:29 so now see me in my nature it's difficult because you see that cuts the nerve of pride wasn't that Paul's problem read Philippians 3 he said people are going around boasting that they've got a righteousness based on their good breathing based on their religious training based on their religious activity he said if they've got grounds to boast I do have grounds to boast Hebrew of the Hebrews tribe of Benjamin circumcised the eighth day a Pharisee of the Pharisees touching zeal persecuting the church he said I had what I thought was a beautiful well made up of the fabric of my good breathing my religious input my religious training my privileges my zeal my activity I thought it was so beautiful

37:57 do you know what I saw it to be he said I saw it to be nothing but scuba cow he said I count all things lost and regard them that I'm and be found in not having mine own righteousness but the righteousness which is of God by faith now my friend that's a narrow gate isn't it for some of you you say no repudiate the fact that I kept my faith to myself pure till marriage yes it counts for the privilege of going to your marriage bed a virgin but it doesn't count to get you to heaven you may as well have laid with a thousand women or a thousand men as far as your virginity being the ground of getting you into heaven but you say surely all of that going to church and reading the bible doesn't that count for anything oh yes in terms of having a store of biblical knowledge having a background of certain disciplines it counts for much but as far as counting to be the grounds of a righteousness my friend it counts no more than if you didn't know one word of the bible

39:23 how can I state it more plainly it's a narrow narrow dull sufficiency self-righteousness repudiated and if you're determined hear me now if you're determined and I wish I could pluck one strand out of my handkerchief if I could just one strand one strand out of the warping woof of this handkerchief if you're determined to hold to one thread at the door and say maybe the lord's not looking I'll roll it up in a ball and stick it in my pocket just in case his righteousness won't quite do I'll have a little string to pull out and say here lord my friend you'll be damned for your one strand that's why it's a narrow gate because everybody gets through it glories in one thing alone let him that glorieth glory now the bible says but it's not only difficult because we must forsake from the heart all self-sufficiency and all self-righteousness the ground of our acceptance with god but in the second place it's difficult because there's the difficulty of forsaking from the heart self-will

The Difficulty of Forsaking Self-Will

40:52 as the governing principle by which we're gonna live there at the gate we must forsake from the heart self-will as the governing principle by which we're going to live you see when man came from the hand of his creator he came forth a creature whose whole life centered in the will of god if I may put it into this kind of picturesque language when Adam came from the hand of god god built him with a throne room in his heart and in Adam's heart upon that throne god placed himself and when Adam looked in at the throne room and saw god on the throne he said god that's good that's where you belong and as long as you're there I'll be perfectly happy that's the way god made him but you know what happened the devil came tempted eve and then with our father Adam it was blatant high-handed treason he said no I can attain some good at the expense of pushing god off the throne god said all the trees you may eat but of that tree you may not eat in the day you eat you'll die he said well we've been promised a certain dimension of knowledge that is some good at the expense of pushing god off and what Adam pushed god off in the pursuit of some good he plunged himself in all humanity into ruin and into hell itself and now god says look

42:19 every one of us is conceived and born still having a throne room still having a throne but there's a usurper king on that throne and that king is one big perpendicular and two little horizontals me mine all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned every one of us to what his own way second corinthians 5 15 that we should no longer live unto self by nature the governing principle of our lives every one of us is living these ourselves now sometimes that leads into a life of openness and ugly profligacy and rebellion and anarchy and lawlessness sometimes it leads to a very respectable admirable desirable life as far as the world is concerned but in god's eyes as long as he is not upon the throne made for himself a life of freedom has been formed what's the sermon on the mount all about well you go back and read it in circle every time you read these words i say unto you i say unto you i say unto you i say unto you i say unto you i say unto you i say unto you what's jesus saying he says in my kingdom my word cuts mustard

43:48 in my kingdom what i say goes in my kingdom what i say is the final authority and the subjects of my kingdom live by my word that's why he said further on in this very seventh chapter not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he that is doing the will of my word is doing the will of my father which is in heaven you know why conversion true conversion is so difficult because god says look i don't want you to just chuck overboard some of the manifestations of self-will i'm telling you to go to the root of it and get off the throne and welcome the king of glory to his rightful throne that's why it's difficult because there must be a forsaking from the heart of self-will as the governing principle of life you remember isaiah's wonderful invitation in chapter fifty five it begins with the free offer of the gospel ho everyone who's thirst come to the waters he that hath no money come buy wine and milk come buy wine and milk without money and without price but then he goes on to say seek the lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near listen now listen now

45:13 let the wicked forsake what his way isaiah fifty three six says we have turned everyone to his own way god says let the wicked forsake his way that is the whole pattern of life rooted and grounded in the principle of living for yourself you've got to say no to it what is the repeated first requirement of discipleship from the lips of jesus if any man will come after me let him say no to booze and broads and no what does he say let him say no to himself that's what he said didn't he if any man would come after me let him say no that's why the gates narrow oh yes multitudes would love to snatch at the righteousness offered in the person and work of christ if only they can be given the lead to still go on running their own lives and so this damnable doctrine of you can have christ as saviour but not as lord has inundated the church and the equally damnable doctrine that you can be saved but not surrendered has inundated the church and the equally damnable doctrine you can be saved and on your way to heaven but just a carnal christian living for self and for flesh

The Difficulty of Forsaking Willful Sin

46:41 no friends that's the term the man of christ has inundated the church that's the term the narrow gate into a wide gate that's to say you can go right on in doing your own thing just so long as you tip your hat to jesus on the cross you're all fixed up my friend you're fixed up to go to hell doubly damned that's all you're fixed up for it's a narrow gate and it's narrow because you've got to repudiate all self-righteousness as the ground of your acceptance with god you've got to repudiate self-will as the governing principle of your life and it's difficult because you've got to repudiate something else too you have got to forsake from the heart and hear me carefully forsake from the heart all sin as the willful practice of your life now i did not say you must break every chain of sin that binds you when you come to the gate it's the job of the liberator to break the chains not you i did not say that you must be sinlessly perfect to get through the gate what i said was this it's a narrow gate because when you come to it you must forsake from the heart all sin as the deliberate practice of your life

48:06 you must be prepared to have the lord jesus break every chain tear every idol from your heart strip away from you anything that displeases him remember in this sermon what he said he said if you've got an eye that offends you someone says well i can't help but lust and i look at a woman i lust jesus said you look and you lust that's committing adultery if you look with an intention to lust not if you simply look and appreciate beauty but you look with a view to lust with desiring that person as a sexual partner he says that's adultery and so he anticipates someone saying but lord i can't help it i've got an eye and every time he says if thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee it is better to enter into what life life life having one eye than having two eyes to go into hell someone says well it's a certain sin i just can't help it my hand just gravitates to it i just can't help it jesus said if thy hand offend thee whack it hack it off cast it from you it's better to enter into life having two hands having one hand than two hands to go into hell what's he saying he says in my kingdom all my people sign no peace treaties with any sin

49:31 sin as much a part of them as right hand and right eye you gotta be prepared to deal with it at any cost that's why it's a narrow gate that's why few find it not because the gate is obscure and hidden off men love their sins the scripture says they love darkness they drink iniquity like water my friend listen sitting here tonight hear me hear me what sin what sin are you clinging to willfully deliberately knowingly known only to you and god perhaps the sin you spare will damn you the sin you spare will damn you that's why the gate's narrow that's why few find it because you've got multitudes that are willing to deal with sins that are like the junk yet you're the one that doesn't know who una choke my wife and I collected over twenty five years of rearing kids that ended up in our base and when the last bird flew out of the nest in December we agreed it was time now to reassess although so-called valuable things restored in the base so we agreed for several mondays for three hours giving each other complete right nimby goes to bell

51:00 chucking powers anything her chuck. Anything I agreed to chuck, she could not veto my chucking. So we had the boxes and the bags and we started chucking away. And there, that little plastic pot thing that cost us a dollar and a half. And back when we were rubbing pennies, we said, boy, we may need that a few more months.

51:20 Better save that. And all kinds of stuff. We got in a good chucking mood and we had more fun chucking away junk. It was no problem. Why? Stuff was utterly invaluable to us. There was no attachment of affection. There was no attachment of a utilitarian nature. It was just junk cluttering up the basement. And that's the way a lot of sinners are. They come up to the narrow gate and say, oh yeah, I'll get rid of that thing. That's no big deal for me. Get rid of that. That's no big deal. Ah, but what about the right hand? That envious spirit that you've nursed from a little girl, a little boy. That lying tongue that's been your companion from the time you could speak.

52:07 That terror. That terrible biting tongue that with sarcasm slashes and cuts and wounds and scars. That deep seeded spirit of unforgiveness that holds grudges and nurses grudges. The evil eye that puts the worst connotation upon all of the deeds of others. The pride that swells within and makes you feel you're a little god. Behind the closed door of your, your bedroom, you worship your face and your body before the mirror as though you were bowing down to a god of wood or stone. What about that right hand? What about the right eyes? Listen to Jesus.

53:01 It must be cut off and cast away. It must be plucked out and cast away or you'll never get through the narrow gate. And if you stand there saying, Lord, there's a right hand sin. I know it's got to go. But hard as I throw it, I know it's got to go. I know it's got to go. I know it's got to go.

53:18 I can't work it off. You'll get through. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Hallelujah. He gives the strength to work on. Not to those who say, oh, no, Lord, I want in. I want in. But not this. Not that. Not this. You see why? He said few find it. If real conversion involves that, awful lot of people talking about going to heaven ain't getting there.

The Difficulty of Forsaking Attachment to the World

54:01 And then fourth and finally, it's a narrow gate for this very fundamental reason. There is the difficulty of forsaking from the heart all willful attachment to the world as our chosen companion in life. There is the difficulty of forsaking from the heart all willful attachment to the world as our chosen companion in life. Now, what do I mean by the?

54:33 World. I mean by the world what Jesus meant in this sermon. You remember he said this about his disciples. You are the light of the world. It is that system of men and things that is in the darkness of satanic bondage where men in their darkness grope about for their own value systems, for their own standards and goals and their own judgments of what is virtuous and what is not.

55:03 What is vicious, what is right, what is wrong. The world is that system held in the prince of darkness and is plunged in darkness. Then Jesus said this. You are the salt of the earth. He there likens the earth, not the physical ground, but the world, its inhabitants devoid of the grace of God as in a state of putrefaction and decay.

55:28 And salt is that agent which checks the putrefaction. And what he's saying. What he's saying throughout the entire sermon on the mount is this. My people are the light of that world system. They're not a part of it. They have forsaken the world as chosen people who are not.

55:54 They're concerned about a pure heart more than a pretty face. They're concerned about meekness more than wealth. They're concerned about hungering and thirsting after righteousness more than hungering and thirsting after fame and prestige. And importance and acceptance. They are not like the world that seeks to feed its own on pride and self-importance and pushiness. My friend, listen, this world system is no friend of Christ and it's no friend of anybody that comes through the door. And you've got to be prepared at that gate to undergo a divorce because you and I were born married to the world.

57:03 There's the gate if necessary. Lick your finger to get your ring off and say that ring which when I was born was upon my finger marrying me to this world, this system of darkness, of anti-God, anti-Christ goals and standards and all the rest. I say to this world, I divorce you in the name of the God of heaven, the God who so loved a sinner like me as to send his son to die. And it's the world that rejected him. It was I, a part of the world, that crucified him. World, I divorce you. And in the name of God, you throw your ring into the deepest sea.

57:52 That's why it's a narrow gate. People want a brand of Christianity that lets them go to bed with the world only once a month, wants to go out in some forbidden place and court the world and stroke the world and fondle the world and carry on. And illicit liaisons and secret trysts with the world. My Bible says all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father.

58:28 And the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God, here we are again, abides forever, life. And you can't do the will of God and be a friend of the world. For the scripture says you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? God. Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. My friend, you must make your choice. Be the world's enemy and Christ's friend. Or be the world's friend and Christ's enemy and be prepared to have him deal with you as his enemy in the day of judgment. That's why true conversion is a difficult thing. Because of those four non-negotiable difficulties, we've seen the necessity of true conversion that leads to life. He's connected the gate, the way, and life. The difficulty, the four major difficulties, and notice what he says, the rarity of it. Few there be that find it. Few there be that

The Rarity of True Conversion and the Easy Alternative

59:31 find it. Does that mean heaven's going to only have someone one every 25 blocks? No. My Bible says that Jesus died to redeem a multitude whom no man can number. Out of every kingdom. Out of every hundred tribe and tongue and nation. And he will make them kings and priests unto God. And they shall worship him day and night and serve him forever in his temple.

59:59 But what our Lord is saying is in any given generation and in the context, even in the most religious crowd, few, relatively speaking, find the narrow gate. Where was Jesus speaking? In the one place in the whole. In the whole existing world. Where the light of special revelation existed. It was only in Palestine that the scriptures had been given. And though they had been disseminated through the dispersion there at the time of our Lord, the synagogues in various parts of the Roman Empire, in a very real sense, Jerusalem was the seat of saving light. Sacrifices appointed of God. And with all of that, Jesus says, few find the narrow gate.

60:51 And my friends, in a place like this, where the word is preached freely, honestly, earnestly, passionately, an awful lot of people like good preaching, few there be that find it. Are you one of those few? Have you come through the narrow gate? Can you say sitting here tonight, by the grace of God, I gladly confess, I trust no righteousness of my own.

61:30 I rest solely upon the righteousness that is in Jesus Christ the Savior. Can you say with all my struggles, with remaining sin and all of my remaining rebellion, I can say honestly, I've settled this issue. I want the gracious Redeemer to sit as unrivaled sovereign on the throne of my heart. And I don't want him to have to share that.

62:01 I don't want him to have sovereignty with any other. And can you say, though I must confess my sins a hundred times a day, my pride, my lust, my temper, my irritability, my short-sightedness, my insensitivity, and a host of other sins, God knows I've struck no pity with any sin. For heaven, I have seen my Savior, my greatest impetus for wanting to go to heaven, is I'll be done with sin. And you've got a notion of heaven that you're going to go around with a penknife, cutting off chunks of gold and sticking them in your pocket, my friend. That's not the heaven that awaits God's people. And though you say the world often bewitches me, shows its thigh to me, and winks its eye and seduces me, and I may even step aside and embrace it for a time, God knows, God knows that even in the midst of that embrace of the world, I know I'm out of my element. Amen.

63:12 I've put the world behind me, and I've repudiated it as my willful, chosen companion. Christ and his people are my companions. Dear people, I'm not talking about perfection. I'm talking about the root of evangelical grace in the heart.

63:30 And you know why, if you look at the passage, and I know I've kept you long, but my friend, hell's a long time.

63:39 And if by preaching my heart out, and I'm not doing this as an ego trip, I've poured my soul out. I've prayed fifteen times this week in preaching, and God knows if I could have had someone else preach here tonight, I would have let them. But I said, Lord, if I've got to die in no place, I'd rather die than warning fellow sinners to flee from the wrath to come and get through the gate. My friend, listen to me.

64:02 What makes it so difficult is Jesus said there's always an easy alternative standing right next to the narrow gate. You see it in the text? Entering at the narrow gate for...

64:16 You see the connection? He said, don't take the easy alternative. The moment you set your face in your eyes and the gaze of your soul upon true conversion, the devil will by one means or another set before you a nice big wide gate. You can come up to it with a free suitor, a two suitor, a garment bag, your camera bag, your suitcase.

64:44 You can come up to it with an actress. And sit in your truck and go riding straight through. You don't need to throw out anything. That's the big wide gate of cheap religion.

64:58 Shallow decisionism. Empty formalism.

65:02 Jesus said it's always there beckoning. And once you get on the wide way, there's nothing difficult about it. You see, the narrow gate is just the gate extended into a way of life. That's why it's a compressed way.

65:14 You say, boy, the gate's narrow. Maybe it'll widen up a little bit and get on the way. Uh-uh. Jesus said the way is just as narrow as the gate.

65:20 For the gate... It sets the boundaries for the way.

65:25 And so you've got to go through life until you enter life. You've got to go through this pilgrimage until you enter life. Doing what? Continually repudiating your own righteousness and looking only to Christ.

65:37 Continually repudiating self-will and looking only to Christ's will. Continually say no to sin and yes to righteousness. Say no to the world and yes to him and to his people. All along the way.

65:51 But there's the beckoning. The beckoning of the big wide gate. No repentance. No submission to Christ as Lord.

65:57 No mortification demanded. No humbling. Just a nice slick decision. Raise your hand.

66:02 Pray a prayer. You're all fixed up.

66:07 And then you just ride your big Mack truck full of all your baggage. Till one day it'll drop off the edge and you'll end up in hell. Because that way leads to destruction. Jesus said it.

66:18 I didn't.

66:20 Don't you make the gate or the way any narrower than the Son of God did. Because in the day...

66:26 In the day of judgment, he's going to settle things for eternity.

An Urgent Call to Enter the Narrow Gate

66:31 Oh, my friend. Enter the gate. Oh, as it is. Enter the gate.

66:39 Difficult as it is. Enter the gate. You remember what Bunyan did with his Christian?

66:47 He understood this. When he left the city of destruction, he knew there'd be a hundred voices trying to call him back. So Bunyan describes in his doing this. He stuck his fingers in his ears and he cried life.

67:01 Life! Eternal life! And he wasn't going to allow any voice to deter him from seeking life. Getting through the wicked gate and onto the narrow way.

67:15 Oh, that you may cry tonight, life, life, eternal life, or how it is there in Christ. You heard it this morning. Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God and there is no other. And preparing for the ministry, God help you to preach a free, unfettered offer of mercy, but to preach an honest biblical doctrine of conversion that is always plumbed by the word of Jesus.

67:55 Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, as we have sought to open our minds and our hearts to the words of our Savior, we confess that they are not words that we would ever have written or ever have spoken. We would have conceived a way so suitable to our carnal lusts and to the pride of our hearts. But we thank you for our Lord Jesus who spoke truth to us, and not only spoke truth, but is the truth, and who offers himself to us as our righteousness, as the one who can break the chains of our sins, divorce our hearts from the world, and bind us to himself. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, as we have sought to open our minds and our hearts to the words of our Savior, we confess that they are not words that we would ever have spoken, but to preach an honest biblical doctrine of conversion that is always plumbed by the word of Jesus. Let us pray.

68:56 Our Heavenly Father, as we have sought to open our minds and our hearts to the words of our Savior, we confess that they are not words that we can break the chains of our sins, divorce our hearts from the world, and bind us to himself as his loving bond slaves. O God, would you not this night bring people through the gate? May your servant not have preached in vain. May your people not have sat here and prayed in vain.

69:02 But, O God, bring people through the gate. Put them on the way. Bring them to life. Lord, let none who has heard the word depart into outer darkness.

69:22 Show mercy, magnify your grace in the salvation of many. We plead for the honor of your Son, that he may receive the full reward of his suffering in the salvation of many. Amen. In the salvation of many who have heard the word tonight, we ask that as we leave this place, the serious and sober things that we have heard may not be dissipated through foolish and frivolous conversation, but may our words to one another be used of you further to drive your word into our needy hearts.

70:04 Hear us and answer us, we plead.

70:08 Amen.