Two Ways to Live - Part 1: The Wide Gate

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 7:13-14

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Well this morning we return to Matthew chapter 7 and as we press on in the
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Sermon on the Mount now as we come to verses 13 and 14, we're really in the the last part.
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Jesus has been drawing this sermon toward a conclusion and with that conclusion, He's going to demand a response.
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If we think of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole, this theme of a of a kingdom that we are to seek, a kingdom that we are to enter into, a kingdom righteousness that we are to live out even as we receive it by the grace of God.
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And this kingdom righteousness is the central concern of the Sermon on the Mount. And so kingdom righteousness, this idea of actually following Jesus and being conformed into His likeness, walking in the ways that He Himself has walked, this is what it means to be a disciple.
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And the Sermon on the Mount is going to end with this call to discipleship. It demands a response.
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Jesus has distilled the values, the righteousness of the kingdom. He's made a call now to follow, to enter, to seek that kingdom as disciples.
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Disciples are those who rest on the Lord, alone, as we said on Friday night, for salvation.
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Those who trust in Him, those who acknowledge the authority that He has, the authority of His Word, as we'll see as we head toward the conclusion.
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And those who walk in His ways, keep His commandments, those who love Him, these are His disciples.
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And really the last section here is going to be pairs of twos. Here we're going to have this morning as well as next week two ways, two paths, two gates.
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And so we have essentially here in verses 13 and 14 a pair of ways, two ways.
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And then we're going to have, following in verses 15, you're going to have two teachers or two prophets, a true prophet, a false prophet, just as there's a true way and a false way.
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And then lastly we're going to have the foundations, a true foundation, one that you can build upon and will endure the storm of judgment, the storm of trial.
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And then a false foundation, one that may stand for a season, may stand for a moment, but when the storms come, the trials of life or the judgment of God, it all comes crashing down.
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So this is all in this last chapter meant to give a sort of sobering cold splash of water on the face of all that we've heard for now several months.
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Jesus demands a response. Matthew 7, 13 and 14.
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Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it.
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Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it.
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Well this morning I want to focus on verse 13. This is such an enigmatic passage, such a beautiful distillation of the stakes of following Jesus that I find it hard to pass it by in one week.
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And what I'd like to do is elaborate on what the wide path involves. What is it like, what does it look like to walk on the broad path, on the broad way that leads to destruction?
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That's gonna largely occupy our time this morning and how do we as believers avoid that?
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What are signs that we may be walking on that broad path and then how can we avoid that? How can we avoid walking on the broad path?
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And then next week we'll look at that narrow path, that difficult way. What does it look like? What does it involve for us to walk on that narrow path that so few find, that so few endure?
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So that's going to be this week in the narrow way, of course next week. So there's a broad way and there's a narrow way.
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There's two ways to live. This is the uniform testimony of Scripture. There's two ways to live. Essentially if you were to boil down the ethical import of the
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Old Testament, you'd come to this conclusion. You have it in Deuteronomy 30 beginning in verse 15.
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You have it really in Psalm 1. There's a way of the righteous and a way of the wicked or Proverbs, the way of the wise and the way of the fool.
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Or the Prophets. If you think of Jeremiah 21, you could sort of extend this and stretch this out in almost every area.
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There's a sharp contrast whenever the Scripture teaches about righteousness or false ways, a wise path or a way that leads to ruin.
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And so there's a dualistic ethical way of understanding this call. Jesus is taking all of that Old Testament injunction and he's putting it before his would -be followers and saying, listen to me now.
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You must follow the narrow way. There's not many people on it. It's very difficult, but it's the only way that leads to life.
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There's a broad way, Jesus says. Many are on it. And there's this narrow way.
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It's so precious. It's so rare. It's a pearl of great price.
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It's worth more than your soul. What could you offer in exchange for your soul? The salvation of your soul depends upon entering by the right gate, walking and persevering along the right way.
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Now the broad way, as I think can be seen evidently in the Sermon on the Mount, but certainly by extension elsewhere, the broad way is simply the way of the world.
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The world in the Bible takes on all sorts of connotations, but you could just say it's the fallen condition.
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It's the default mode of life. That is the broad way. We're born on the broad way.
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If you ever played Monopoly, you just, you roll through birth, you're on Broadway. That's where you begin.
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Any walk, any lifestyle, any baggage, any pursuit, whatever it may be, that way is so broad that it's open to you.
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Its way is broad. It can take all comers. Wherever you are, whatever you want, whatever you need, whatever you have, whatever you refuse, whatever you reject, whoever you are, however you are, doesn't matter.
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The way is broad enough. Everybody can make it through that gate. It's open. The way is easy. Doesn't matter how many distinctions and differences there are.
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There's many people that are sort of would -be enemies, but they're all on the same path. There's many people that are completely incompatible.
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Worldviews, cultures, backgrounds, traditions, religions. They're all, of course, very different, very divergent, and yet here's where they're unified.
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They're all alike on the broad path. The broad way,
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Jesus says, leads to destruction. Destruction. The right path, as we'll explore more next week, is narrow and difficult, but it's the only path that leads to life.
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The only path that leads to an everlasting belonging and presence to God.
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Jesus knows that the many walk on this broad and wide path. They enter through this wide gate, and he knows that many, therefore, are on the way to destruction.
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And this is why he's bringing his whole sermon to this great charge, and the command of verse 13, and it is a command, is enter by the narrow gate.
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In other words, have you been hearing all that I've said? Do you understand who I am? Do you understand why I have come?
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Do you know who you are? Do you understand why you need me? If that's so, enter by the narrow gate.
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Follow my way. It's a difficult path that I trod. It's a bloody path, a lonely path, but it's the only path.
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That's what Jesus is going to say. So there's a broad way, and there's a narrow way.
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Now, what does it mean to be on the broad way? What does it mean to follow the broad path? Well, so many things could be said, and in the time we have this morning,
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I simply want to give perhaps three windows, three examples of what it's like to walk on the broad path, or what's involved in walking on the broad path.
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Really, I should say there's two main things that we're going to focus on, and then the third is what you must do if you're on the broad path.
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And then we'll turn over to consider three points about how we as believers, as those who are seeking to walk on the narrow path, can be sure that we are avoiding the dangers, avoiding that default flow, that drift away from this narrow and difficult way that leads to life.
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So that's essentially what we're going to do this morning. So first, those on the broad path desire instant gratification.
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That's the first point. Those on the broad path, those who walk on this wide way that leads to destruction, desire instant gratification.
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I have a felt need, I have a felt desire, it must be fulfilled. It must be answered instantly, without delay.
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In other words, another biblical way of getting at this is, those who are on the wide path serve the lust of their flesh.
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This intense desire we're going to unpack in a moment. Or another way of describing this, those who walk on the broad path have their belly as their gun.
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When they're hungry, and this is speaking not just physically or literally of food, but of course fulfilling any desire, any felt need, there's an instant gratification.
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So we're talking not about, you know, driving through Chick -fil -A on a whim, although that could be involved.
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It's a lot more than that, and I love me some Chick -fil -A. We're talking about a carnal appetite, a fleshly appetite, a spiritually darkened mindset that brings us almost to this base call -and -response way of life.
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I feel an impulse, I fulfill it. I have a lust, I satisfy it. I crave something, I act almost like a wild animal.
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That's why David, when he's brought to real repentance, he says, Lord, I was like a beast before you.
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I was like a wild animal. I was simply thoughtless. It was as if I didn't have reason, if I didn't have a rational soul,
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I was just simply reacting and responding to whatever my flesh was demanding. I was serving the God of my belly.
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I was driven by a fleshly impulse. This is characteristic of all those who walk on this wide path.
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It's the way of the world. It's a dog -eat -dog world. That's not the narrow path.
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That's not the path that leads to life. That's not the way of the Christian. It's not those who would be disciples of Jesus.
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The one who is fulfilling this animalistic drive, the one who desires instant gratification, is one who is working out the flesh.
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They're not working out the Spirit's presence in their life, but they're working out this fleshly impulse, this fleshly drive, and the works of the flesh,
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Paul says, are evident. You want to know what it looks like? It looks like this, Paul says, the works of the flesh are evident.
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Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry, the like.
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And Paul says, listen, I've told you before, I'm going to tell you again, those who make a practice of these kinds of things, in other words, those who have this kind of lifestyle, will not enter the kingdom of God.
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That's the wide path. That's the broad path. It leads to destruction. In another context, in 1
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Corinthians 6, Paul says, don't you know, he's almost saying, haven't I taught you this? Isn't this obvious to you?
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Don't you know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? So don't be deceived. There's something about this wide path that lulls us all to sleep.
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No one would be on the wide path if they realize the wide path leads to destruction. There's something about the wide path that keeps the fate, the inevitable end of all those who are upon it, hidden.
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No one would be on the wide path if they knew their end. Paul says, don't be deceived.
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He uses essentially the same list, not that it's exhaustive, but it's exemplar. He's saying, these are the kinds of characteristics that belong to those who are on the way to destruction, on the way to ruin.
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Fornicators, he says, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, these will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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What I love about 1 Corinthians 6, we're not quite there yet. I don't want to, I don't want to tone down the emphasis and force of Jesus' call, but what
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I love about 1 Corinthians 6 is then Paul also reminds him of this. Such were some of you.
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Such were some of you. Before you came to the Lord Jesus, you were idolaters.
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You were drunkards. You were adulterers. You were thieves. You had selfish ambition. You had jealousy. You had outbursts of wrath, but you were washed.
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You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. So there's that sharp contrast again, right there in 1
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Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. Two ways to live. So the one who's on a broad path, who's driven by instant gratification, is going to make a practice of that, right?
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Paul doesn't say those who have fallen in or stumbled into that, and then they've repented as they've begun again to renew their faith in their walk with the
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Lord. We're not talking about the Christian who's struggling. We're talking about one who has no regard for God, no regard for godliness.
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They simply practice out the works of the flesh. They live by instant gratification. And it really doesn't matter what you think, and it really doesn't even matter what
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I say. The truth is this. Their end is destruction. Their end is destruction.
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Somehow at the end of the day, the weirdo on Boston Common with the sandwich board is right.
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The end is destruction. Belly worshipers, of course, cannot be those who pick up the cross and follow
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Jesus. It's not possible to feed your flesh, to fulfill every impulse and then think that you can put the cross of following Jesus on your back and take bloody step after bloody step.
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How could that be? It's impossible that one who has been in bondage to the desires of their flesh, simply fulfilling as it arises, how could it be that they would then take a cross and as it were bear the weight and the burden of that in this persevering marathon of faith?
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It couldn't be. But Jesus says, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross.
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Only then can he follow me. And so self -service is at odds with self -denial.
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To serve the lust of your flesh is at odds with serving the will, as it were, the puncture of the spirit, the compulsion of the spirit.
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Self -denial and cross -bearing are to mark a Christian's life, not bondage to the flesh and its desires.
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That's what we're called to crucify and we crucify it by denying ourself and picking up a cross.
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Listen to what Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher from the 19th century says, many do not want holiness.
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They want their harlotries. They want their revelries. They want carnivals of vice. They want selfishness.
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They want everything that Christ will not give. So they cry, not this man. Give us Barabbas. They make the choice of the sinner.
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No wonder. Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate. Let him who has ears hear.
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That wide path will always applaud you. The applause, people holding out paper cups, keep going.
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It's all great. You're doing great. You're fine. We're all fine. Everything's fine until destruction comes.
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And that image of destruction is going to be there right there at the end. Everything seems great. It's a sunny day.
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Yeah, we built on the sand, but this is good sand. This is solid sand. We'll be okay until the storm comes in a night and it all comes crashing down.
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This is the idea. You think of pliable, if you've ever read
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John Bunyan's great, great work, Pilgrim's Progress. And Christian, of course, is one who's realized there's two ways to live and he rightly understands.
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I've been born on Broadway. I've been born already in a city of destruction. That's where the story opens up.
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Christian's in the place of destruction. And as he receives in this beautiful imagery, this calling, this invitation to leave and flee the city of destruction and make his difficult, narrow way through the narrow gate, the wicked gate, in that 17th century
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English, and endure all the way to the celestial city. And so he begins to flee and he runs out. He plugs his hands into his ears and says,
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Life, life, eternal life, and he's running from the city of destruction. Well, guess what? Some people near him, some friends, some neighbors, they see that and they go, what's going on here?
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What's he up to? What's he found? And they begin to follow him. And one of these figures that follows him is named pliable.
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Pliable thinks, this is great. Some change. I need some change too.
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This would be really helpful for me. But then some difficulty is felt.
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And as soon as that difficulty comes, pliable begins to waver. And we read in Bunyan's words, pliable began to be offended and he was angry and yelled,
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Is this the happiness you told me of? If we have such difficulty when we first set out, what can we expect between now and the end?
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So he left them and Christian never saw him again. I want instant gratification.
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I want happiness. Now, I'm willing to leave the city for a little bit. I'll tow the line. But if it's nothing there, if I can't have it all now, well, then it's not for me.
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Those on the broad path desire instant gratification. So that's the first point. Secondly, those on the broad path set their minds on the earth.
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Those on the broad path set their minds on the earth. We could perhaps better say the things of the earth.
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We're going to qualify it at the end. There's a way that we should not understand that. But just to set the tone and set the weight, earthly mindedness is almost the definition of worldliness.
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And worldliness is the contours of the broad path. And so the primacy of the mind stands out here.
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In fact, that's a major concern for scripture, that we understand the importance of the mind. As Christians, we maintain our walk on the narrow path by renewing our minds.
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So there's a sense of understanding the primacy of the mind. With our minds, our desires, our wills, our affections, we can begin to identify with the values, the systems, the things of the earth.
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We begin to imitate the ways of the world around us. We begin to operate out of a desire for the things of the world.
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And those who are on the broad path have no barrier against this. The end of that, by the way, is everything that has been shown to us in the
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Sermon on the Mount as kingdom righteousness becomes inverted. It's inside out.
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It's upside down. Sin is something that always disfigures and defaces man as man is meant to be.
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Man as the image bearer of God the creator. And so as the great
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Scottish Puritan Thomas Boston said, the natural man, in other words, as we're born in this fallen condition, the natural man's heart is where his feet should be.
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Isn't that beautiful? His heart's where his feet should be. Fixed upon the earth. Your heart shouldn't be down there in the mud.
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His heels are lifted up against heaven, which is what his heart should be set on. And his face is now towards hell.
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His back is towards heaven. So he loves what he should hate. And he hates what he should love.
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He joys in the things that he ought to mourn. And he mourns for the things that he ought to rejoice in. He glories in his shame.
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And he's ashamed of his glory. He abhors and detests the things that he should desire and desires the very things that he should abhor.
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You see, it's all inverted. Do you want a distillation of earthly mindedness?
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All due respect to the great Frank. But he captures the ethos of earthly mindedness.
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I've lived a life that's full. I've traveled each and every highway and more much more.
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I did it. I did it my way. I planned each charted course each careful step along the byway and more much much more.
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I did it. I did it my way. That's the anthem of every person who chooses a way that seems right to a man, but its end is certainly death.
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My way is the way that leads to destruction. God's way, the way that's difficult, the way that's narrow, the way that requires faith and perseverance, the way that so few find, that's the way that actually leads to life.
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The attitude of my way, that ethos of I'm going to get what I can out of this life out of this world.
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At the end at least I was true to myself. The problem is being true to yourself in a fallen state is being true to a sinful self, a deceiving self, a self -deceived self.
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It's by grace we realize as Paul came to realize nothing good dwells in me. It's only by the spirit that I can now see the flesh.
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I see the power of it. I see the corruption of it. Of course the way, my way is the way of many.
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The broad path is full of multitudes, countless hosts that are all living life my way.
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And Jesus is calling his people to not follow their own way, but to deny that way and to pick up a cross and to follow him.
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In other words, especially you younger people, listen to me, there is no safety in numbers. Not if you're hearing the
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Sermon on the Mount rightly. Jesus says, if you have ears, hear. Let me tell you what most certainly will not stand at the judgment seat of Christ.
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Everyone else was doing it. There's no safety in numbers.
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Listen to what John Calvin says, how is it that men knowingly, willingly, rush on carefree down this broad path of destruction except this, they don't believe they're perishing.
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Because the whole crowd is going with them the whole time. We can't all be destroyed.
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Look how many of us there are. Look how many are like this. Surely not all of us will be destroyed.
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And I think I'm a little better than most of the people on this, right? We're just not even hearing.
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We're not even hearing the words. The importance of the mind, this earthly mindedness, of course, leads to a hostility towards spiritual things, a hostility toward the things of God.
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Listen to what Colossians 2 says, verse 21, and you, he's describing Christians and he's describing what their life was like outside of Christ.
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You, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.
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And you think of Romans 1, right? God gave the rebellious over to a debased mind. So there's something about the corrupt works corrupting the mind, but also the corrupt mind corrupting the works.
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What's the cart and what's the horse? At some point it's really hard to say. But the idea is this hostility, this alienation began in one's heart, began with one's mind.
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And then it becomes this spiral where the further you go in wicked works, the further debased and alienated you are from the life and knowledge of God.
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So the mindset has to be changed. To use
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Old Testament language, we need a new heart. The heart being a lot more than just affection, the heart being the center of gravitas in one's life, the center of rationality, the center of ambition.
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We need a new heart. We need a heart that's not just patched up with a little oil change and a pat on the back.
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We need this heart of stone to be ripped out from us and cast into the abyss.
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We need a heart that God himself puts within us, a heart of flesh. And that heart, of course, is a heart that will still be subject to the flesh in this groaning corrupt world.
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But it's a heart that can repent and be renewed by faith every day as it's being transformed from one degree of glory to the next.
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And so the Christian, although they're still, as it were, in this fallen world and they have, as it were, the flesh that they're at warfare against, they're walking nevertheless in a newness of life.
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They have a new awareness out of a new center, new desires, a new hope. They have thankfulness.
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They acknowledge the grace of God. And this means that earthly -mindedness is not asceticism.
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In other words, it's not denying the things of the earth. Earth here, of course, is being used pejoratively.
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It's the fleshly things. Things that deny God, deny God as creator, deny the goodness of God, the things of the flesh, the things that do more to corrupt
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God's creation, to wound our neighbor rather than bless him. That's the things of the earth.
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That's earthly -mindedness. Christians are not called to deny themselves or follow this narrow path in a way that is something like the
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Pharisees, touch not, taste not, handle not. That doesn't equate to holiness.
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Jesus condemns that. Of course, the Judaizers of the New Testament are condemned along the same lines.
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So we're to enjoy the good things of the earth, enjoy good gifts as we saw even last week, the good gifts that a good father in heaven knows how to give his children.
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And so we see them as provisions from an all -wise and all -good creator. We receive them with gratitude.
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We steward them accordingly. So what's the difference? Well, let me tell you what the
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Puritans said. We've said it in times past, so helpful. The Puritans taught their people, love the
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Lord, use the world. It's great. Love the
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Lord, use the world. The Lord is the chief treasure. The Lord is the pearl of great price.
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The Lord is the center, the meaning, the purpose of it all. All things are done to the glory of his name, soli deo gloria.
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We inhabit, we enjoy this world. Still, even despite the fall, we see its glory, its beauty.
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We see that its choruses renew every morning, rising to the praise of God.
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We see it in the changing of the seasons. We see it in the rustling of the grass. We see the presence and the goodness and the wonder and majesty and might of the creator.
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And so we use it as stewards, as those who know him, as those who glorify it.
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Poets and artists, sculptors, they labor over it. Chefs, the scientists, they pour into it.
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All these things are to lift our hearts up to the one who made it all. But what does an earthly -minded person do?
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What does someone walking on the broad path do? Well, they love the world and they use the
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Lord. They use what the Lord has given. Their mind's on the earth. Their mind is on the earthly thing.
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Their mind's not on the Lord. Their mind's not up where he is. Their heart's not toward him. So they just use what he's given, not with gratitude, not as good stewards, not as those who are seeking to reflect and understand the ineffable mysteries of God.
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Those on the broad path set their mind on the earth. They can live for nothing higher.
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They can't see beyond their own toenails. Now, to come to the third point here, a little bit of a shift.
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Let me preface it in this way. What does it take, what must you do to enter the wide gate and walk on this wide path, this broad way that leads to destruction?
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What do you have to do? What do you have to do to ignore the calling of Jesus, to plug your ears at the warnings, to ignore that command, to enter the narrow gate, to persevere in what's difficult, to bear the cross unto salvation?
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What do you have to do to actually begin this journey toward destruction? What does it take to follow and drift along with the masses along the broad way of judgment?
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Well, the answer is nothing. You don't have to do anything. As we've said, if you think you are at the fork in the road, which path will
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I choose? Narrow or broad? I really like what Ross is saying. Narrow path is definitely looking tricky, but I can see the importance of it, but I'm not so sure.
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No, wrong conception. You're not at the fork in the road. No one's at the fork in the road.
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As we said, you're born on broadway. You're on the broad path. You're drifting along simply by not doing anything.
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You're on this wide path and the end of it, Jesus is opening our eyes, the end of it's destruction. You don't have to do anything.
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Don't change anything. Listen, go home from here. Don't change a thing. You'll know what path you're on.
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Everybody's on a path. Everybody's on a path. The question is which path? And so if you're on that broad path by default, if you're on that broad path, you must turn around.
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It's one of the ways we talk about repentance as Christians. This idea of changing your mind or turning around, reorienting yourself.
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That's not all that repentance is, but that's a hallmark of it. You must turn around. To turn around is to repent.
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To turn around is to say, I don't want to keep going in this way. I don't want to keep following with everyone else who's going in this way.
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I can't keep up. I can't do this anymore. It's like Paul when he was on that broad path and the
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Lord Jesus came and said, Saul, it's really hard for you to kick against the goads, isn't it? I know, as a preacher,
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I know there's a lot of people sitting in this room and they'll politely nod.
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They'll try to keep their eyes open. They just want to go. They want to have lunch. Get out of here. They've checked off the box.
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They've done their part. They've shown up. They just want to go home and get back to drifting along on the wide path.
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But I also know there's some sitting in this room and it's hard for them to kick against the goads. I have been drifting.
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I have been flowing headlong. I know it's at the end of this. I try not to know it.
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I try not to let my mind go there. I'm trying to distract myself. I'm trying to ignore it, but it's really hard. We know justice is coming.
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Justice must come. We know that we will die. We will die unexpectedly.
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There's very few and it's a mercy when you actually know the hour is approaching and you are given that time from the
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Lord to prepare yourself and make things right with him and with others. That's a mercy, but that mercy is not guaranteed to anyone here.
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So the reality is that storm comes not on schedule, but like a thief in the night.
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And we will die either apart from Christ in our sins with all that that means. Eternal, everlasting destruction.
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Ruin that never ceases. Because God is a holy
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God. Or we die in Christ, having borne the cross, receiving this gift of faith by his grace and enduring in this path of righteousness that leads to life everlasting.
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These are the only two paths there are. Everyone in this room is on one of those two paths. Which path are you on?
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There's no straddling these two paths. I think that's why most commentators believe that we shouldn't make too much out of the gate and the way.
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Like, well, what's the gate? What part of the Christian experience is the gate versus the way? Most commentators are viewing these as synonymous.
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Jesus is sort of expanding the metaphor to track a little bit more with the Old Testament. But what I love about that imagery of the gate is it's like you can't think of the ways as being parallel and you can kind of hopscotch between them as you need to.
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Yeah, I've been on the broadway, but don't worry. You know, in a few months when everything settles down, I'll get back on that narrow path.
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No, it's what gate have you gone through? Very, very helpful. There's no finding a third path.
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There's two ways. So you can't straddle. You can't hopscotch.
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You can't make a third path. You can't say, I'll dig my own. And outside of Christ, as Hebrews 10 says, there's nothing that remains but a fearful judgment and fiery indignation.
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That's it. Don't shoot the messenger. This is just what
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God has said in His Word. Listen, all flesh is like grass. It all fades away.
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But the Word of God endures forever. These are words that are true. And blessed are those who has ears to hear.
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So Jesus is calling for all to enter this narrow gate. And remember this call, as He says, is a call that is not for the righteous.
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You want to know where the righteous, in other words, those who think themselves righteous in that Luke 18 sense we've seen now for weeks?
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Well, they're on the broad path. Remember what Jesus says to those self -proclaimed righteous ones, the
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Pharisees and the scribes, the experts in the law? He said, you guys are so righteous that it's almost mystifying because tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom ahead of you.
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They're going through the narrow gate. Somehow you can't find it. You're on this broad path. Jesus says,
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I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And so what's characteristic of the broad path is there's a lot of people on it.
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Most people you know are on it. Have you ever driven down just 495
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Route 2? You see all the cars going by? Do you ever think how many Christians could possibly be in every one of those cars passing by?
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There's so few. Many are on this way to destruction.
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Most of the people you know are on the way to destruction. Here's what's characteristic of them. They don't know that.
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They don't think that. They think themselves quite all right.
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Thank you very much. They think themselves, if anything, decent.
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Better than Christians, I know. Hypocrites. So what's characteristic of the wide path, the broad path is there's a lot of people and they're all doing very well.
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They're very righteous and decent people. And as we'll see next week, what's characteristic of the narrow path is it's full of a lot of humble sinners who know their only hope of eternal life is if it's a gift from God, all of grace.
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So this means in a context like this, we cannot assume repentance. We cannot assume repentance.
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I cannot assume that just because I'm looking at this passage and I'm preaching it that even
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I've come to the conclusion of what true God word repentance is. And don't think that you listening to a sermon or reading books about repentance somehow has made you repentant.
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If we're a church, and I hope we are this kind of church that takes sin seriously. And we'll be the kind of church that realizes the reason we take sin seriously is because scripture says our
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God is a consuming fire. And so we can play as children's play.
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Children play. They don't have the mental fortitude to realize the gravity of things.
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It cannot be for a mature people of God that we don't have the mental fortitude to feel the gravity of what it means.
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That God is a consuming fire. The ability to understand what true repentance is.
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If as Bonhoeffer famously said, there's such a thing as cheap grace. We should not be surprised to find that there's also such a thing as cheap repentance.
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Repentance that wasn't even worth the time you spent expressing it. Doesn't have any weight.
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Doesn't hold any value. In other words, akin to godliness, there's a cheap form of repentance.
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It has the form of repentance, but it denies its reality and its power. It's not really repentance.
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And as we've alluded to, looking back even last week at the cry of repentance in Psalm 51, there is a world of difference between the sort of casual self -help.
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I'm just going to call it what it is. It's not repentance toward God. It's a sort of casual self -help. A sort of pat on the back.
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A sort of way of reorienting to myself. I do feel bad about this. I should change that. That is not
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Christian repentance. That is not biblical repentance. There's a world apart from that kind of self -help maintenance of feeling bad about your moral decisions.
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And that heartfelt repentance of David in Psalm 51. Let me put it like this. There's a world of difference between, well, it's just been really hard lately.
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You wouldn't understand. You don't really know what my life is like. It's been really hard, but I'm aware and I'm going to work on it.
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There's a world between that and against you only. Have I sinned? I've done what's evil in your sight.
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There's a world between, it's easy for you to say, this has always been a weakness of mine.
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Yes, I can't even talk to you about this anymore. And create in me a clean heart, oh
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God. Don't take your spirit from me. There's a world between if you could spend one minute in my shoes, you'd understand.
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I know you're viewing it this way, but you don't even know the half of it. And don't cast me away from your presence.
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Be merciful to me. Do you see that difference? That's the difference between the broad path that leads to destruction and the narrow path that leads to life.
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You know, one of the things that I reflect on of course is as Reformed folk here so Reformed that we celebrate
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Reformation Day, right? Based in all the Reformed ways we try to be. And for that reason, we love reading
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Reformed and Puritan literature, and we love getting that into the hands of our folks. And I almost can feel the sort of need to qualify and introduce and go, you got to understand, you know, these
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Puritans love scripture, and they poured over the Word of God, and boy, they can really pack some fireworks and some thunder.
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And so just, you know, you know, don't be thrown off by that. Don't be discouraged by that. It's worth it. The gems will be worth working through that.
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And of course the idea is the Puritans are going to begin to strip away the little sand castles of our own fleshly, earthly mindedness that we make.
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And if we can, if we're reacting against that, if we're going, oh, oh, he's talking about sin again.
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Oh, judgment. Oh, these guys have a death wish. I just can't. That's a pretty dangerous place to be spiritually.
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Can't we just get back to the good stuff? I like the warm fuzzies. I don't want to hear about judgment. I don't want to hear about sin.
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Why is Jesus talking about destruction? Why is Richard Baxter talking about destruction? Can't we just change the tune and clear the air?
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That's a dangerous place to be spiritually. I've been reflecting on that, but you know, it's a bigger danger where I'm at.
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I read the Puritans so much, I don't even blink when I read things like that. That's a more dangerous place to be.
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When John the Baptist is out there, and he's giving a baptism for repentance, and all those that have been moved upon by the
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Spirit of God, and their hearts are cut, and they come forth, and perhaps there's some that are feeling so guilty, so ashamed.
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They're ducking behind the crowds. They're like the prodigal son, wanting to turn back. They're wiping away tears.
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They're doubting that they're even going to have the ability to come if they stand before this mighty man of God, this holy prophet.
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Isn't he going to expose them? Isn't he going to condemn them? But you know what? Whether some came forth triumphantly,
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I repent, and I know God loves mercy, and so I'm going to be baptized. Or whether they cowardly hid, and cried, and wept, and crawled, as it were, they all get baptized.
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You know who doesn't get baptized? The self -righteous.
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It's the Pharisees who come, and we don't even know. It would be undignified for us to go near him. They just approach to kind of take a gander, and John the
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Baptist says, you brood of vipers. Who warns you to flee this wrath to come?
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So those who are on the narrow path, their eyes have been opened to a righteous judgment of God, and to the degree that their eyes have been opened to that righteous judgment, and they've fled to the mercy that God provides in Christ, then they take up that cross, and out of gratitude, they begin to walk this
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Christian life in this narrow and difficult way. They don't know what else to do. It's a response of love, of wonder, amazing grace is their war cry as they trudge along every thorny and difficult step.
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Who's on the wide path? The self -righteous. That's undignified.
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No, I'm quite all right. Look at how well composed my life is. I'm better than most people
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I know. Surely, if judgment's going to come, there's a lot of others it's going to reach before it's me. You're not hearing.
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There's only two paths. So the one who assumes repentance, the one who assumes righteousness, the one who assumes their walk with God, and yet bears none of the fruit, shows forth none of the buds of that kind of grace, is surely on the path that leads to destruction.
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They won't know it. They won't see it. Some of us in this room will be devastated when that storm, when that day comes.
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I know in glory the shock will be not only who was there unexpectedly, a relative that we thought never had faith, but it was unknown to us that in their last moments
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God dealt with them. And that will be the shock perhaps of all those unexpected people that we pray had somehow been made repentant and received the grace of Christ even at death's last minute.
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But I think the greater shock will be those who aren't there. Well, how do we avoid the broad path?
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Well, I'm speaking largely to believers here. And the first thing I'd say is set your heart above.
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If being on the broad path means this earthy -mindedness, then to avoid the broad path means we must get our minds above, beyond the things of this life, beyond this groaning corrupt world.
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Going back to Pilgrim's Progress, you remember when in the second part, the second volume that Bunyan was almost pressured to write, and this is when
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Christian, his wife and children now are going to begin this journey out of the city of destruction onto the celestial city.
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And so in this analogy, Christiana comes to the house of interpreter. This is the church, the
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Holy Spirit being the interpreter, as it were. And she's taken into a room where a man, she saw, could only look down.
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He couldn't look up and he had something in his hand. Something, if you go find it in a museum of colonial antiquities, don't touch it.
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It's a muckrake. You don't want to know what that muck is. But it was what you would use to scrape and spread all the foul things.
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It's a muckrake. So here's this man, he cannot look up. He's forced to look down. He can only look down and he has a muckrake in his hand.
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But above him there was one who was holding a crown in his hand and he was offering it to the man, saying give me your muckrake and I'll give you this crown.
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But the man was holding his muckrake. He couldn't even see it, couldn't even notice it. He was just looking downward. And so Christiana taking this in says,
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I think I understand the meaning of this. This man is a man of the world.
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And interpreter says, you're right. His muckrake shows his carnal mind, this fleshly mind.
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You see him rather rake up the dust of the floor than turn to what is calling him above with a crown in his hand.
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And that's to show us that heaven is just a fable to some. And that things here are counted as the only things that are substantial, the only things that are real.
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And notice that this man can in no way look upwards, but only down. So that you will know the earthly things, when they have this kind of power upon man's mind, carries his heart away from God.
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You want to avoid the broad path? You've got to get your mind right. You've got to get your mind away from the things of this world, away from the fallen aspects of this life, and up to God, to Christ, seated at his right hand, to the things of Christ, to the kingdom of Christ, to the righteousness of the kingdom of Christ, to all that the
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Sermon on the Mount has been a great undertone and neon highlighter, putting before your eyes and saying, follow.
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Set your heart above. Secondly, understand within. Understand within.
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If your mind's above, you're going to start being able to see things within. James 1, verses 14 and 15, gives us this birth cycle of sin.
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Now, where does sin emerge? How does sin begin? How does an act of sin originate in our lives?
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So listen to James 1. Each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
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Really helpful if you understand the difference between temptation and your own inward desire to fulfill temptation.
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Christians do not blame the temptation. The temptation is not the problem.
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It's your desire. It's the desire of your flesh to fulfill that temptation that's the problem. It's not the snare.
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It was the desire for the bait within the snare. That's the issue. That's the issue.
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You want to avoid the broad path. You want to avoid being lulled to sleep or put into a spiritual coma, so that you can drift along toward destruction, as I've seen many former brothers and sisters do.
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And you must understand this birth cycle of sin. It's not the snares and temptations that you couldn't resist.
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It was your own flesh that you never put to death. You didn't crucify it and its desires. Rather than not making an occasion, you made many occasions to fulfill its lusts, you see?
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When that desire has conceived, not when the temptation, no, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it's fully grown, brings death.
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That's the birth cycle. What does
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James say right after he says that? My beloved brothers, don't be deceived.
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Don't be deceived. He's saying, understand your desire.
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Understand the forces that are welling up within you. Know yourself. In light of setting your mind above, in light of renewing your mind to who
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God is and what He's done, you can finally begin to understand yourself within. Look at that cycle. Why are you desiring the things that you're desiring?
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Why are you pursuing the things that you're pursuing? It means that we'll be on guard against the lusts of our flesh.
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We want to allow these things to settle in and take root and give birth to death, to prevent that death from overtaking us in the
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Christian life, in this life of sanctification. We have to put that to death, put those desires to death.
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Therefore, Paul says, put to death whatever in you is worldly. You set your mind above, you get it off the things of the earth.
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Now you can understand within. You see all that worldliness within you. It's going to kill you if you allow it to survive and grow.
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You need to put it to death. Kill your darlings.
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Drown your Egyptians. Thomas Brooks had that great line of darling sin.
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I remember taking a course on thesis writing, and the instructor was giving just hot tips for writing, and one of the ones that always stuck out to me was, kill your darlings.
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You labor over the perfect sentence, the perfect syntax, and at some point it gets to the editorial chopping block, and even though you love it and you feel like pilot, what
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I've written, I have written, I can't change it. Kill your darlings. Kill your darlings. It's hard to do that.
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If any of you write, it's hard to, once you've written something and you've labored over it, it's hard to cross it out.
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It's hard to erase it. Kill your darlings. Listen to what Thomas Brooks says. Do not delay this work.
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Do not think that you can fight and overcome in one day. Do not think that your golden and silver idols will simply lay down their weapons and yield the field to you, lie at your feet.
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When Saul lived and kept his throne and he was in his strength, David was kept exceedingly weak and low.
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It was only when Saul had been dethroned and slain that David began to grow stronger and stronger.
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Just so, brothers and sisters, all the while a darling sin lives and keeps the throne in your heart, grace and holiness is kept weak and low.
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But when your darling sin is dethroned, when it's slain by the power of the Spirit of God and repentance and faith, grace and holiness will quickly grow stronger and stronger and its might will rise higher and higher.
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That's difficult. That's the narrow and difficult way that leads to life.
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So understand within. And then third and lastly, value what is actually valuable.
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Value what is actually valuable. You want to avoid thinking like the world, living like the world.
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You need to have a renewed mind. You need to have your values shifted. How many,
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I think we've used this analogy in the past, such a great illustration. How many of us have seen Antiques Roadshow? Tell me about, how did you come across this?
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This porcelain vase? Well, I don't know. We used to throw jelly beans in it.
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I remember one time I kind of using it to scoop mud out of the backyard. And well, this is actually a priceless artifact from the
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Han dynasty. It's worth 1 .1 million dollars. And I had no idea.
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You learn to value what's actually valuable. And what you understand is the values of the world do not actually accord with the values of the kingdom of God.
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What the world sees as valuable in the kingdom of God is often profane, cheap.
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What the kingdom of God prizes over all is something the world detests. It's worthless. It's vain.
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It's futile. It's foolish. Something to mock and ridicule rather than adorn and prize.
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And so in the Christian life, if you would avoid the broad path, you have to value the things that are actually valuable.
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What does God prize? What does God like? I don't assume you understand.
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Luke 18, again, the Pharisees and the scribes. Why is it? Why is it that tax collectors and prostitutes, the degenerates of social society in the first century, are entering the narrow gate and on their way to life everlasting?
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It's because they're beginning to value without perhaps even conscious awareness the things that God values.
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That's what's happening as their whole life is being renewed by a spirit. But those who thought, we know.
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We know what God values and we value those things too. Look at our great rituals. Look at our great ceremonies.
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Look at our adornments. Look at the kind of respect that we command. Look at the kind of influence we bear. We go even beyond the law.
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We love righteousness so much. We tithe mint and cumin and dill. You see, and Jesus is saying, go and learn what this means.
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I desire mercy, not sacrifice. You don't value the things I value in the way
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I value them. You love the things that accord yourself. You love the greetings in the synagogue. You love the best seats.
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You don't value what I value. Who's the one who knows me? Who's the one who's known the mind of the
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Lord? Who knows me? Who's meek? Who's long -suffering? Who's abounding in mercy?
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Faithful in love? Who's unwilling to crush?
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Who's unwilling to clobber? Who's known the mind of the
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Lord? Who values what is truly valuable in the Kingdom of God? We just come full circle to the beatitudes.
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And so you draw close to God through His Word. You grapple with these things. You realize now what seemed cheap in darkness has now been brought to light, and it's worth the life entire.
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These things have real value. So you don't, to go back to pearls being thrown before pigs, now you actually realize this isn't pig food, this is pearls.
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You guard it. You see its inestimable worth. You repent of being short -sighted and short -lived.
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You repent of seeking those pods that even the swine would eat, the things that shrivel and never can satisfy.
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Now you understand the true value. You understand the promises have value. So now you can endure in this difficult and narrow way.
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You can live according to the promises. When you were in darkness, the promises were jokes, deceptions, opium for the masses.
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But now you've been brought to the light. Now you've responded to His call. Now these promises are precious. They're worth however heavy and painful that cross may be.
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You know God will be faithful to His Word. Now the
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Christian life, now the narrow path, now that wicked gate has appeared. Beloved, now we are children of God.
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If we've understood these things in these ways, if we've avoided setting our mind on the things of the earth because we're setting our mind above, if we're now looking within and inwardly, we see this death cycle that we seek to mortify through the grace that God provides in Christ by His Spirit.
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And now we're beginning to value all the things that we once detested. Now we love and cherish the very things we used to yawn and roll our eyes at.
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Now we are children of God. But it has not been revealed what we shall be.
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Not yet. There's a narrow and difficult way to endure. But this way, this truth, this promise has become more real to us than anything else.
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More real than my trial. More real than my hardship. More real than my suffering. More real than my pain.
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In fact, any travail, any trial in this narrow and difficult way is not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in me.
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You see, that's a value shift born by faith. And that's how you avoid the broad path.
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Living in hope, living with gratitude, standing on the promises of God, valuing what is actually valuable.
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But if anyone loves the world, the love of the
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Father is not in him. All that's in the world, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride in life.
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It's not of the Father. It's just of the world. And the world is passing away. And the lust of it is passing away.
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But whoever does the will of God, whoever hears His voice, whoever enters by the narrow gate, that one will abide forever.
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Well, let me return as we come to a close now to 1 Corinthians 6. As we said, all those who are walking on the broad path don't realize they're walking on the broad path.
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Those who have turned in repentance in all of these ways, they've trusted in Christ for salvation, and now they begin to walk on this narrow path.
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They're washed, they're sanctified, they're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because they've put their hope in Him.
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They trust in Him. They know His sacrificial death has given them a covering of righteousness. Now they're not ashamed, but rather grateful in humility.
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They say, thank You. Thank You. Now help me to live all the way to everlasting life.
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As we saw from Hebrews 10, nothing remains on the path that is broad that many are on.
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Nothing remains on that path which is outside of Christ, but a certain fearful looking for judgment and a fiery indignation.
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But for those on the narrow path, this path that is in Christ, Colossians 1 says we have this hope of glory.
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And we, as Colossians 2 says, who are once alienated, enemies in our mind by wicked works, as we saw earlier, now have been reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, that we can be presented holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight.
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How could that be? Well, we read it right there. It's through death.
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In other words, we've made peace with God through the blood of His cross.
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New birth, new heart, new desires, new path.
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What path are you on? What path are you on? Isaac Watts wrote these words.
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I'm going to close with these. Isaac Watts wrote this hymn from Matthew 7, 13 and 14.
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And I love in that last stanza, he understands the point of it all. Here's the point of it all.
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You're on one of these two paths. Most are on the path that leads to destruction.
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Very few are able to find the narrow path. Those on the narrow path have had that Psalm 51 encounter with God.
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And they understand their only hope in all of their stay and the anchor for their soul on the way that leads to life is for God giving them a new heart from a new birth with new desires so that they can be on this new path all the way to the end.
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Knowing in faith, he who began a good work will see it all the way through. And so Watts knows the cry of the heart is,
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Lord, create a new heart in me. It's not the stairs. I'm kicking against the goats.
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I know I can't be on this path. I'm blocking my ears to what I know is inevitable ruin. I've been given so much and I'll be held accountable to that.
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But Lord, I'm helpless. I don't know how to turn around. My neck won't go. I'm in bondage. It doesn't feel like a path so much as a pit.
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So I don't know what to do. Well, you cry like David. Create a new heart in me. Oh, God, be merciful to me.
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Create in me what I can't muster up in myself. Do for me what I can't do for myself. Save me.
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And put me on a path that leads to life everlasting. Listen to these words. Broad is the road that leads to death.
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Thousands walk together there. Wisdom shows a narrow path with here and there a traveler.
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Deny yourself. Take your cross is the Redeemer's great command. Nature now counts her gold dross if she would gain the heavenly land.
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The fearful soul that tires and faints and walks the ways of God no more is but a seemed almost a saint making his destruction sure.
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Lord, let not all my hopes be vain. Create my heart entirely new.
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That which hypocrites could never attain, which false apostates never knew.
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Enter by the narrow gate. Wide is the gate. Broad is the way that leads to destruction.
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There are many who go in by it. Narrow is the gate. Difficult is the way which leads to life.
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There are few who find it. Let's pray. Father, may
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You open our ears, Lord, everyone in this room, to hear that heavenly call, that gracious warning and invitation to turn from our ways and renew our walk with You, to take up the cross we've allowed to slink down by our feet and bear it once again on our shoulders and take those thorny, difficult steps that You have taken as we look to You, the captain of our salvation, knowing
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You have finished the race on our behalf, to help us now to run with vigor and press on, not being so easily entangled with the things of the world or the desires of our own flesh or this pride of life, but casting all that away, help us to run headlong, even if we run alone, until we enter into that glory that You have promised all those who wait for Your appearing.
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Lord, if there's a stranger to Your grace here, might this be the calling for them. Might they repent and cry out for a new heart and a new life that is given from the crucifixion and resurrection of the very