The Narrow Road

SERMON: 2008-06-14--sm0854--the-narrow-road SOURCE DURATION: 00:42:07.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The opening segment is clear sermon exposition. The closing segments transition into sustained musical pieces (hymns), marking the end of the main spoken sermon content. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:38:10.600-00:38:30.720, 00:38:42.180-00:39:02.620, 00:39:08.680-00:39:32.680, 00:39:38.080-00:39:51.180, 00:39:56.520-00:41:05.960, 00:41:18.900-00:41:35.140, 00:41:37.980-00:41:41.240, 00:41:49.700-00:41:54.760 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- I pointed out two weeks ago when we last looked at these verses in Matthew chapter 7, that not only is it difficult according to the words of Jesus to get into the kingdom, it is equally difficult to live in the kingdom. The reason for that, he says, that both the point of entry and the road within the kingdom are narrow and hard. Listen again to how he puts it in verse 14 of Matthew chapter 7, "Small is the gate, and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Small is the gate, narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. That whole notion that somehow or another everybody and his uncle can just willy-nilly walk into the kingdom and expect to receive God's eternal inheritance is far removed from the teaching of Jesus in this gospel and elsewhere in all of scripture. To get into the kingdom and to live in the kingdom, we have to leave behind us a lot of things. If we want the pearl of great price, we have to sell all other pearls. The gate is small. The road is narrow that leads to life. So what I want us to do this morning as we prepare for the celebration of communion is look with you at three things that according to scripture we have to leave behind if we're not only going to get through that gate, but if we are to stay on the straight and narrow. And if at first that will sound negative to you, then please remember to put it in the context of where this road ends up. It is narrow, it is hard, but what does it lead to? It leads to life. And if we want to have life, we must embrace the reality of biblical truth. So here's the first thing that we need to leave behind as we come through the gate and as we start walking on that narrow road and it is what I've chosen to call love for the world. And the classic passage there of course is 1 John 2, 15, 16, and 17 where scripture says do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world and the world passes away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. And the word world there as you well know doesn't just refer to this physical planet, it refers to life on this planet as it is organized in rebellion over against God. And what I find really fascinating about that poster, the broad and the narrow way, is how graphically she captures, along the broad way, worldly activity. In your bulletins is a full page print out of that picture just so that you can look at it a little more closely. Not everything is immediately evident unless you study the scripture references very carefully but let me walk you through some worldly activities here. And this little tower is a lady of the night who is beckoning men to come and spend the night with her. It's a house of prostitution. Over here is a drinking tavern. This is a ballroom. This is a royal theater. This is a gambling casino. Here you're hard pressed to see it, but it's a poor donkey that has fallen down under the load and his master is beating the snot out of him. Then further along up here you have people fighting and arguing. Here you have people going to war. And the one aspect of this drawing that has intrigued me the most is this thing up here. Do you see that? That's a train. But not only is that a train, it is a Sunday train. Now isn't that intriguing, Sunday train is closer to the fires of hell than the gambling casino, the dance hall, and the house of prostitution. I looked at that and I said there's got to be history to that. So I did a little research on Sunday trains and I haven't been able to find out much about Sunday trains relative to Germany because the lady who originally did this was a German lady as you know. And I found out some very interesting things about Sunday trains in North America. The first Sunday train in North America ran in 1843 in the region of New York City in New York State. And it has a fascinating history because a fellow by the name of Mr. Selleck was the first to introduce refrigerated milk depots in New York City. And that became so popular that to bring in a fresh supply of milk was a constant challenge. And so the railroad was developed in part to help supply the milk for his depots. Now as you can imagine, this became fairly controversial, particularly as it relates to bringing milk in on Sunday. So let me pick up this story as it is written up in the August 12, 1900 edition of the New York Times. When Mr. Selleck began his agitation for a Sunday train, it met with great opposition particularly from the ministers and their congregations. Special meetings were held and prayerful protest was made against such an ungodly innovation as a railroad train on Sunday and at which church members who were milk shippers were threatened with dismissal from church communion if they should acquiesce in the demands of the New York milk consumers in case the railroad company should so far defy their religious sentiment as to place a train at their disposal on Sunday and ship milk on that day. Now the discussions went on in a variety of heated fashions until August of 1843 when the milk producers and the railroad pushed through a deliberate attempt at sending the milk train on Sunday evening. That's where we pick up the story. The clergymen and church people denounced this one as something too awful to contemplate. And one worthy Goshen preacher declared from his pulpit that the curse of God would surely fall upon all concerned in it and who patronized it. All manner of dire misfortune was prophesied to befall the railroad company as a judgment upon it for its most impious act. And it looked very much from the very beginning that these prophecies would be fulfilled. Because would you believe on the very first trip of that original Sunday milk train the locomotive and the two railway cars got derailed, fell off the track into a pond from which they had to be hauled out 24 hours later. All the milk was lost. The first shipment never got to New York City. And you can well imagine how the clerics and the churchgoers all looked upon that indeed as a sign of God's favor on them and judgment on the milk train. But wouldn't you know it, time goes on, and even as we've had that whole debate about Sunday shopping here a few years ago and gradually it all gets caved in, by the time the Christian milk producers were told that if they didn't ship their milk on Sunday they could forget about shipping it on Monday through Saturday, it was only a question of time before that became a regular part of life. And so every era has its own particular issues in terms of what does honoring the Lord look like and how do we stay pure and clean from worldly influence. And if a previous generation was perhaps unduly legalistic about theater going or participating in the performing arts, it's probably safe to say that today we've swung way too far the other way where almost everything goes. And the challenge for God's people then is to live out in every generation what in Christ we already are because here's how the Apostle Paul puts her attitude towards the world. He says, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." If you're in Christ this morning, if you have made a profession of faith in Him and have repented then whether you understand it yes or no, you have said no to the world with its pride of life, its lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh, you have said no to the broad road which leads to destruction and you have said yes to the small gate and the narrow pathway. And the challenge for you as for me then is to live out in our daily lives what in Christ we already are. How do we get rid of the world even as it lives in us and how can we be passionate about our devotion to Jesus and seeking God and His kingdom. And the best way to do that of course is not just by trying to address all the negatives and by saying well I better not participate in this activity, I better not participate in that activity and before you know you're back to living under the law that can make you look very righteous on the outside but the problem is the world is as much inside as it is outside. You can be so righteous on the outside and still be filled with the pride of life and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh that you're just as worldly as everybody else. The antidote is to abide in Christ and to focus on Him and on His kingdom as the deer pans for streams of water so my soul pans for you oh God said the psalmist. And David he gives voice to the heart that lives inside the believer when he says better is a one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere and I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. What's the best way to keep dandelions out of your lawn? It's to grow a healthy crop of grass. What's the best way to keep the world at bay? What's the best way to walk on the path of righteousness? It's to make sure you hang around with God and you hang around with God's people because it is in the context of God's amazing grace in Jesus. It's in the context of seeing the beauty of a relationship with Him. It's in the context of seeing the prize that awaits the believer that we can say no to the devil, the world, and the flesh and we can actively pursue the Lord Jesus. To walk the narrow road, let there be no mistake about it, is to say no again and again and again to our love for the world. That's one thing we need to leave behind but there's more and I think they get tougher. The second thing that we need to leave behind is a thing that I've chosen to call idolatrous relationships. Another very interesting feature, if you look at her poster carefully, is that not only are there fewer people on the narrow road than there are on the Broadway but they're almost always alone or at best in pairs of two. In contrast to that, the people on the Broadway are constantly in a gathering of groups, multiple groups of three or more. Why? Because I suspect in the world we draw a lot of life from our relationships rather than drawing it from God. An idolatrous relationship is not a relationship whereby we lean on somebody who helps us to know God better. No, it's a relationship whereby we lean on somebody as a substitute for God and so who can take us away from the things of God. Jesus put it this way in Luke chapter 14, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and his mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes even his own wife, he cannot be my disciple." Remember a disciple is a follower. Jesus isn't just interested in people who give some kind of intellectual ascent to a certain body of truth, important as that is. No, he's looking for followers. He's looking for people who will deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him daily. And that means he says, "Hating father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters." Now, that's strong language and you don't hear a lot about that verse when you went to Sunday school like that. Imagine coming home and saying, "Well, my teacher told me I don't have to listen to you and I can in fact hate you because I love God more." It's not quite how it goes. Jesus is using very strong language to indicate that our loyalty to God must exceed every other loyalty in life. And where do our primary loyalties lie? They lie to the people closest to us. And where our loyalties lie, where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. So here's what happens in the world. My friends come along and they say, "Hey, let's go carousing. Let's go get ourselves into trouble. We'll get drunk or we'll do our drugs or, you know, we'll turn somebody's house upside down. Lord knows whatever else." So now the question is, am I going to be loyal to my friends or am I going to be loyal to the Lord my God? Or to make it even more difficult, my spouse will want to take me into practices and behaviors that as a Christian I'm not comfortable with, maybe perverse sexual activity, maybe stepping into places of life that are simply not healthy, good or godly. And now I've got to choose. Will I favor my spouse and avoid the battle that I know I'm going to get into if I say no or am I going to be obedient to Jesus even if that means alienating the love of my life? Or your kid comes home from school and has a whole horror tale of what the teacher didn't all do. And instead of trying to find out what the truth is and trying to hold a kid accountable, you just automatically step in there and you defend your child because your child is all always right. That's loving father, mother, brother or sister or child more than you love Jesus. And if you think it's hard to give up the world, that's nothing compared to having to live with the reality that if I have to choose loyalty to Jesus over against loyalty to the dearest relationship in my life, I must always put Jesus first. And you have no idea what a battle that is until your most cherished friendship or your most cherished relationship or your most cherished heart connection is challenged or broken by the cross of Jesus. Somebody who's heard me tell this story before, this never came home to me as hard as years ago when I was in college seeking to walk out before God, what I thought God was calling me to be, had run into that group of reorganized Latter-day Saints who had many of the spiritual gifts and the presence of God that we at that time were seeking for, my friends and I, except they also believed the Book of Mormon and had of course a whole tradition that was very much at odds with anything that I had learned from scripture and from my tradition. And I remember struggling, struggling, Lord, if this were proven to be the truth. Because you see, I started on this journey because I had to find out for myself what the truth was. Up until then, I had just, as a lot of us do, taken for granted what I had been taught and told by my parents and by my church, and I had a struggle, Lord, is this true or is this true? And it came to me so powerfully that if Mormonism were to be true, then I would have to in integrity and honesty embrace that, and you know, what was the big obstacle for me in that? What in the world would my father think if I came home and said, "Oh, by the way, Dad, guess what, I've become a Mormon." Now you know, that would go over like a lead balloon. Now thank God we have subsequently discovered that they were off track, but I can guarantee you there will be a time in your life, if you're going to be a disciple of Jesus, where you're going to have to choose, you're going to have to choose, am I going to be loyal to my spouse, to my kid, to my friends, or will I be loyal to Jesus? Because you see, you cannot be a disciple of Jesus until that issue is settled, because I'll guarantee you further, there will be a time in your life that Jesus will call you to something that those nearest and dearest to you are going to disapprove of, because that's one of the most powerful tools Satan has to hold us back. Jesus himself experienced that when his mother comes to him and tries to draw him away from his mission, and his words to his mother about, "Woman, what do you think you're doing?" Don't make a lot of sense until you understand that his primary object is to follow hard after the Lord his God. The psalmist put it this way, "Whom am I in heaven but you, and on earth there is nothing that I desire besides you." Now understand this is not an excuse for dishonoring father or mother, it is not an excuse as some people make out of it, to negate our filial responsibility towards our spouse or towards our children. Every teaching can be twisted, if you're going to love God and obey him, of course you're going to do everything you can to love those who are your greatest responsibility, but you'll never love them purely unless Jesus is your number one priority. So if you want to test your spirituality, if you want to do some on the soul searching which scripture admonishes to do periodically, then ask yourself the question not only, "How much in love am I with the world, and where have I crossed lines there?" But who owns my heart in a way that would compete with my heart's allegiance to Jesus? And then understand the narrow way says, "Give me grace, O Lord God, to repent of that, to turn away from it, and to follow hard after you." So there's love for the world, there are idolatrous relationships, and if that's not bad enough yet, it gets still worse. We also have to leave behind us what I have chosen to call the centrality of self. Because in this same passage here in Luke chapter 14, Jesus not only says, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, when his mother, his wife, and his children, his brothers, and his sisters," he goes on to add another phrase, doesn't he? "Yes, even his own life cannot be my disciple." It's not good enough to give up the world and to give up your most intimate relations so that Jesus may be number one. We also have to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and die to the centrality of self. Now self was created to serve God, find life in God, and to honor him. God's designed for creation, he's our God, we're his people. As our God, it's his job to look after us, it's his job to protect us, it's his job to guide us, his job to bless us, even as parents with a child. Our job then is to receive that, to be grateful, to honor, and obey. That's how it started in the original creation. We didn't mess it up, we no longer believe God is good in our natural hearts. We don't really believe that he is worthy of honor and worthy of obedience, and so as a result we take matters into our own hands, and we not only look to the world to meet our needs and to fulfill the emptiness in the inside, we don't only look to friends, we discover sooner or later the world betrays us, friends you can depend on, and so the older you get and the more you experience in life, or the more wounded you are early in life, the greater is the temptation now to put self on the throne of your life. Nobody else will look after me, so I will look after me. Nobody else will protect me, so I will protect myself. Nobody else can be trusted, so I will trust only myself, and all of us by nature, we live that way with self on the throne of our lives, and it comes in a lot of disguises. On the back of the poster you see there the traits of the self-life, Valerie uses this a lot in her beta class, we have issued it off and on over the years in this congregation as a preparation for the celebration of communion. I won't take the time to read through it all in detail, but I would certainly encourage you in the course of this week when you're having devotions, do some self-examination, because self is often far more subtle than we give it credit for. There is a spirit of pride, an exalted feeling in view of your success or position. This is what John referred to earlier as the pride of life. There is the love of human praise, a secret fondness to be noticed, a love of supremacy, drawing attention to yourself in conversation, the stirrings of anger or impatience, a touchy sensitive spirit, a disposition to resent or retaliate when disapproved of or contradicted, there's self-will, a stubborn, unteachable spirit, an arguing, talkative spirit, harsh sarcastic expressions, an unyielding, headstrong disposition. There's carnal fear, a man-fearing spirit, a shrinking from reproach and duty, reasoning around your cross, a fearlessness that someone will offend and drive some prominent person away, a compromising spirit, the fear of man, a jealous disposition, secret envy, an unpleasant sensation in view of the success or prosperity of another, the lighting in their shortcomings, a dishonest, deceitful disposition evading or covering the truth, covering up your faults, leaving a better impression of yourself than is true, false humility, unbelief, a spirit of discouragement, a lack of quietness, a disposition to worry and complain, formality and deadness, a lack of concern for the lost, a dryness or an indifference of soul, selfishness, love of ease, love of money. Let me ask you, do you still want to follow Jesus? He's ruthless. He cannot let any of that into his eternal kingdom because we'll screw it up just like we do in life today. And so you and I, when we come to faith in Jesus, when we enter through the narrow gate and we commit ourselves to the life of Christian discipleship, we make a commitment. And we say, yes, I will take up my cross and I will follow Jesus. Paul puts it this way, in Christ, those who belong to him have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and with its desires. And again, in Christ, this is already our reality. Positionally, we're already seated over here with Christ in heavenly places. Doesn't mean we're living there all the time. As you've heard me say before, the problem with the living sacrifice is it keeps crawling off the altar. And so most of us will find ourselves in situations where even in our most godly moments, self creeps in. I don't have to live in the world to experience the pride of life. I don't have to live in the world to experience the lust of the eye or the lust of the flesh or to make the world revolve around myself. We all do it to one degree or another perfectly naturally. But in Christ, we said no to it. And once we have said no to it in Christ, and Christ by his Holy Spirit comes to live inside me, then he helps me to be transformed by the renewal of my mind. And he helps me to put off the old and to put on the new. This is what Jesus means when he says the gate is small. You got to leave a lot behind when you come into the kingdom. And this is what he means when he says, you know, that path is narrow because the requirements of God are far beyond and above anything that you and I could ever manage on our own. But that's precisely the point. He hasn't left us on our own. That's why he's given us Jesus. And I love the way the writer to the Hebrews puts it. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. The author, that is to say the one who begins our faith, also the perfecter, that is to say the one who completes our faith, who for the joy said before him, endured the cross scourging in shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You and I, we listen to all of this. We look at our own lives and we say, I just, I'm in the wrong place. I can't do it and I'd say you're precisely in the right place. Because the thing that we confess around here is that nobody can do it on his own. And should you be sufficiently conceited to think you could, then give yourself some time or talk to your friends or better yet, talk to your kids or talk to your spouse and they will straighten you out real fast because folks, this is the reality of the human condition. But Jesus, he pioneered a path and he did it by the cross and he did it for the joy that was set before him. And this morning as we prepare for the celebration of communion, here's what I want us to think about. Take a look at your life and ask yourself the question, where have I crossed lines? Where have I compromised with the world? And then look at your relationships and ask yourself the question, who has my heart in a way that exceeds the loyalty of my heart to Jesus? Whose opinion matters more? Whose love will I compromise my values for simply to keep them in my life? And then look at your own heart as we've read through that little list of the traits of the self-life and say, where does the world revolve around me? Where do I yet need to learn to take up my cross, deny myself, and follow Jesus? Because you know the tragedy of many Christians is that you can take all this selfishness with you into the kingdom and many of God's blessings and many of the things that God wants to do for us, they still all revolve around our own sweet little selves. And so the music is all about me or the preaching is all about me or the fellowship is all about me. And what I like about that poster is that when it comes to outlining how you live in the Christian life, she really captures it. Because if living in the world here has all this worldly kind of entertainment that ultimately focuses on feeling the need in my own life and making me feel good, if you look carefully at what she has along the narrow path here, it's entirely different because it starts with the church. And if you know the story of Pilgrim's Progress, the first thing that happens as he gets on his journey has come into enlightenment is he gathers with God's people and they encourage him and they move him on. You know why it's so important for God's people to gather together? A log left on its own won't long glow or burn, we need to encourage one another daily to be faithful to God and faithful to each other. That's why the church gathers together. The next one, and again you won't notice it unless you can read the small print, that's Sunday School over there. This little tent is a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus, particularly to those who proclaim the gospel because here we have an evangelist preaching the gospel to people that are on the Broadway. The next building here, if you look at it very carefully, is an orphanage. And the third building here is some kind of diaconal institution, a place for helping the poor. In fact, the lady who drew this poster in the early 1800s was one of the co-founders of a diaconal mission in Stuttgart, Germany. And she so captures the contrast between a world where you live for yourself and where it's all about me and all my satisfaction and the kingdom of God where your life has been so transformed by the saving grace of Jesus Christ, you're so passionately in love with God that his kingdom and his values are the most important thing and that comes to expression then by faith working through love. So ask yourself the question, how much of my life is spent in sacrificial service to others? And how often am I prepared to grow up in Christ, take up my cross, and follow him? Because what all is said and done, the Lord wants to move us then from consumers to producers, from children to adults who can take seriously their responsibility in the kingdom of God knowing that God is committed to meeting our deepest needs. And now whatever you come up with in these few moments that we have together over the course of this coming week, recognize two things. Jesus died for all our failures. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but more than that, he has risen from the dead, he has poured out his Holy Spirit, and by his word and by his Spirit, he is transforming our hearts from the inside out so that instead of loving the world, we love the kingdom. Instead of having the priority, the dearest ones to us, Jesus Christ is our priority, and instead of it being all about me, we learn to put God first, and other people second, and ourselves third, because you know, ultimately, that's the life of fruitfulness, and that's the life that pays off. And if you wonder if it's worthwhile, remember where each of the roads ends up. The gate is wide, the road is broad, where does it lead to? Eternal damnation. The gate is small, the road is narrow, few there be that find it, but where does it end up? In the holy city, the inheritance that God has for his people, and in that day, you and I will look back, and we will know there is no sacrifice that we have been asked to make that even begins to be compared for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:38:10.600; remove through 00:42:07.000] There is a Redeemer, Jesus God's own Son, Precious man of God, Messiah, Holy One. Jesus, my Redeemer, name above all names, Precious man of God, Messiah, hope for sinners' strength. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your smile, And leading your spirit till the work on earth is done. When I stand in glory, I will see his face, And there I'll serve my King forever in that holy name. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your smile, And leading your spirit till the work on earth is done. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your smile, And leading your spirit till the work on earth is done. There is a Redeemer, Jesus God's own Son, Precious man of God, Messiah, Holy One. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your smile, And leading your spirit till the work on earth is done. And leading your spirit till the work on earth is done. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:42:07.000; resume after this marked segment]