True Conversion, Rare and Difficult

Q: What does the Bible say about true conversion?

The Bible describes true conversion as entering through a narrow gate to a compressed way that leads to eternal life, as emphasized by Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14. In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus proclaims the necessity of true conversion by urging listeners to enter through the narrow gate, highlighting that life requires discipline and commitment. True conversion is depicted as a transformative process that demands the forsaking of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, essential to obtaining eternal life. Conversion is not just a momentary decision; it is a call to ongoing repentance and reliance on Christ's righteousness, illustrating the profound seriousness of this spiritual journey.

Q: How do we know conversion is difficult?

Jesus teaches that conversion is difficult due to the need to forsake self-will, self-righteousness, all attachment to sin, and worldly desires. In the sermon, the preacher outlines at least four fundamental difficulties associated with true conversion that highlight its challenges. Firstly, individuals must forsake self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, realizing that righteousness comes solely from faith in Christ. Secondly, there must be a submission of self-will, acknowledging God's authority over one's desires. Thirdly, potential converts must reject all habitual sin as a way of life, ensuring there is no peace treaty with sin. Lastly, a heartfelt detachment from worldly values and influences is crucial, indicating a complete divorce from the world in favor of Christ's kingdom. Each of these challenges underscores why true conversion is not easy and why few find the narrow gate.

Q: Why is true conversion important for Christians?

True conversion is vital for Christians as it leads to eternal life and represents a genuine relationship with Christ, fundamentally altering one's life. True conversion is not just a formality but the pathway to eternal life and communion with God. It signifies a radical change in identity and direction, moving from the broad way that leads to destruction to the narrow way marked by a commitment to Christ's teachings. This transformation is essential because it aligns believers with God's purpose for their lives, driving them toward righteousness and away from sin. In a world filled with distractions and false teachings, true conversion offers believers a foundation built on faith in Jesus, empowering them to live lives that reflect His glory and intentions. The rarity of true conversion emphasizes its importance, reminding us that many who claim to follow Christ may not have fully embraced this transformative process.

Q: How do we enter the narrow gate?

To enter the narrow gate, one must forsake all self-righteousness and sin, placing faith solely in Christ's righteousness. Entering through the narrow gate requires a profound act of faith and repentance. Jesus specifically instructs that one must relinquish any reliance on personal merit, educational background, or moral accomplishments. This act of forsaking self-righteousness, self-will, and all deliberate attachments to sin lays the foundation for true conversion. It demands a conscious decision to trust solely in the righteousness of Christ, who provides the only acceptable standing before God. The act of entering the narrow gate represents a willingness to confess one's own unworthiness and seek deliverance through Christ's sacrifice, understanding that eternal life hinges upon this commitment. Consequently, understanding the nature of this gate and the accompanying challenges sets the course for a believer's journey toward salvation.

This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, September 27, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church
in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to turn with
me in your own Bibles to the seventh chapter of the Gospel
according to Matthew, Matthew's Gospel and the seventh chapter. and follow as I read what to
some, perhaps many, are very familiar words spoken by our
Lord Jesus. Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14. Enter in by the narrow gate,
for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many are they that enter
in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straightened
or compressed or hedged up is the way that leads unto life. And few, and few, and few are they that find it. There are many things in life
concerning which ignorance or indifference are neither blameworthy
nor fatal. There are many questions and
issues which, if you are asked about them, you can respond by
saying, I don't know, and furthermore, I don't care. And to take that attitude of,
I don't know, I'm ignorant, and I choose to remain ignorant of
the issue raised, I don't care to be indifferent and to remain
indifferent. There are many things concerning
which such willful ignorance and settled indifference are
neither blameworthy nor fatal. To remain in that ignorance and
indifference, nothing horrible will happen to you. However,
there are some matters, and relatively few indeed, concerning which
ignorance or indifference are both blameworthy and fatal. things concerning which you don't
have the luxury of saying, I don't know and I don't care. Now, one such issue is that which
is bound up in a question such as this. What must I know? What must I do? What must I become? If I am to be prepared to die,
go to judgment, and come away from judgment with the favor
of God upon me, and enter into His presence with joy forever. To put the question a bit differently,
what must I know? What must I do? What must I become? in order to die, go to judgment,
and come away from the throne of judgment without hearing the
words, I pray God, no one in this building will hear. Depart
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. Now, in a very real sense, the
whole Bible is given to answer this kind of ultimate question. For we are told in 2 Timothy
3 and verse 15, with respect to Timothy, that from a child
or from a baby had known the Scriptures which are able to
make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. But tonight we want to concentrate
our attention on one of those statements of our Lord in which
these very issues are addressed in a most concentrated, simple,
and what makes these words particularly valuable, a most vivid manner. The great issues, the ultimate
issues of death, and judgment and heaven and hell, I say they
are addressed in a concentrated, simple and vivid manner. And the words to which I make
reference are the words that I read in your hearing. And before
we begin to unpack them and apply them, let me underscore briefly
by way of introduction, first of all, a reminder concerning
who it is that spoke these words? Who said, enter in by the narrow
gate? Who said that there is a wide
gate and a broad way that leads to destruction? Who said there
is a narrow gate and a compressed way which alone lead to life
and few, only few find it? Who said this? Some narrow-minded
religious bigot? the head of some self-made religious
movement who had the notion born of arrogance and human pride
that my way is right and all others are wrong? No. These words were spoken by our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the incarnate God. They were spoken
by Him who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The one who said, though heaven
and earth pass away, my word shall never pass away. The one who said in John 12,
48, the words that I have spoken unto you shall judge you in the
last day. These words were spoken by Him
who is incarnate truth, who speaks infallible truth, who speaks
truth that he himself will bring to our attention in the day of
judgment. And furthermore, we need to underscore
not only this reminder of who spoke these words, but just a
word about the setting in which he uttered them. Did our Lord
speak these words one day as He was simply walking down a
Palestinian road with His disciples and suddenly stop and say, Oh,
by the way, for anyone who listened to me, enter in by the narrow
gate. They would be words of truth
no matter what setting our Lord spoke them in. But the setting
in which He spoke them gives them peculiar weight and force. They come at the end of what
we commonly call the Sermon on the Mount. This great magna carter
of the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in which
our Lord began the sermon, by delineating the marks of all
the true subjects of His kingdom. In those eight blesseds that
we commonly call the Beatitudes, our Lord gives a composite picture
of the character traits of all the sons and daughters of His
kingdom. He then went on in the remainder of chapter 5 to describe
the righteous standard by which the subjects of his kingdom seek
to live in the power of his grace, a standard that touches the first
springs of thought and desire and motive and attitude as it
is dictated by the length and breadth of God's holy law. And
then in chapter 6, he went on to describe how the subjects
of his kingdom will carry out their more specific religious
duties, their giving, their praying, their acts of self-denial. And he says that unlike the religious
leaders of the day, they will carry out their religious acts
primarily with a view not to their fellow men, but to the
eye of their Father who sees in secret, so that impelling
them and regulating the climate of all their religious experience
is this intense verticalism they are concerned to be well-pleasing
to their Heavenly Father. And then in the latter half of
the sixth chapter, of the book of Matthew, he describes the
subjects of his kingdom as they seek to live in a world where
they need food, they need shelter, they need clothing. And he describes
them as a people who, having worked out their more specific
religious exercises with a view to the eye of their father, he
describes them as those who, amidst the necessity of food
and drink and shelter, are prepared to trust the loving heart of
their Father to supply all of their needs. And then in chapter
7, he begins to concentrate upon some very searching issues that
we'll not have time to go into, but as he's bringing this sermon
to a close, see what he has done. He has described the subjects
of His kingdom in terms of their outstanding character traits.
He has described the standards by which those subjects will
live in dependence upon His grace. He has further described those
subjects in their more specific religious exercises, and then
he's described them living out their practical day-by-day life
in the world of clothing and food and shelter, as living in
dependence upon the largeness of their father's heart as they
seek their father's kingdom. But then, like a good preacher,
he is not satisfied. simply to have expounded these
leading lines of the dimensions of His kingdom, these leading
features of the subjects of His kingdom. He is not content that
even while he is preaching, all of his listeners, according to
chapter 7 and verse 28, are hanging upon every word. He is speaking
like none of the contemporary religious teachers who stood
up and said, Rabbi Ben Ezra says, and then they mumbled on what
Rabbi Ben Ezra said. Rabbi so and so said, and they
mumbled on what Rabbi so and so said. But this teacher was
saying, You have heard that it was said, but I say unto you,
I say unto you, I say unto you, and they were hanging upon his
words. For as we read in 728, he taught with authority and
not as their scribes. But you see, he was not content
to have every eye fixed upon him, every ear, as it were, turned
forward, straining to capture every word of grace and power
and penetrating insight that fell from his lips. Our Lord
was concerned that his hearers not only understand these leading
lines of thought concerning his kingdom, he is anxious that his
hearers actually enter and become subjects of that kingdom. And
so at this point, our Lord is beginning to press in upon His
hearers what we would call an urgent appeal that men would
now enter the very kingdom, the leading lines and dimensions
of which He has described in His sermon. And rather than simply
say, enter into the kingdom, If you will enter the kingdom,
our Lord, also like a good preacher, turns men's eager ears into eyes. There is an Arabian proverb that
says he is the most effective speaker who can turn men's ears
into eyes. And so rather than say in simple,
straightforward, bland, unimaginative language, enter the kingdom,
our Lord speaks about a gate. and a way that lead unto life. He speaks about a narrow gate
and a compressed way. He speaks about a wide gate and
a broad way which lead unto destruction. Well, having focused for a few
moments upon the authority of the one who speaks the words,
the setting in which they are spoken, Now let us consider the
teaching of these verses, particularly as they focus upon this one basic
subject, the necessity, difficulty, and rarity of that real conversion
which leads to eternal life. The necessity, the difficulty,
and the rarity of that real conversion which leads to eternal life. And may I remind you, my hearers,
this is an issue concerning which you cannot afford the luxury
of ignorance nor indifference. Notice, first of all, how our
Lord sets forth the necessity of that real conversion which
leads to eternal life. He does so by bringing into an
inseparable relationship three things. Look at them in the text.
Enter in by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad
is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter
in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and compressed is the way
that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Now do you see what our Lord
has joined together in this passage? He has joined the narrow gate
which leads to the compressed way which issues in eternal life. Now, do you see the three things
inseparably joined in the passage? Do you children see it? Teenagers,
adults, visitors, members? If you don't see that, you'll
miss the whole thrust of what our Lord is saying. For here
He is underscoring in the most clear and forceful manner imaginable
the absolute necessity of a real conversion if we would enter
into eternal life. He says there is a narrow gate
by which alone you can enter upon a compressed way, upon which
alone you can move and end up with eternal life. For in this
passage you will notice that life is not mere existence, but
in this passage life is set In apposition to what? Destruction. Wide is the gate, broad is the
way that leads to destruction. There is a way which leads to
destruction. There is a way which leads to
life. Life, then, must be the opposite
of destruction. What is destruction in the Bible?
It is not annihilation of the soul. It is not the extinction
of the soul and of the body such as happens in the destruction
of an animal that is killed and then is burned. The animate life
that expresses itself through the eyes and the personality
of an animal is extinct the moment the animal dies. take its dead
body and burn it, and the animal is now in a state of extinction. It has no soul, it has animate
life, it has personality, but it has no entity called a soul. You see, destruction with reference
to human beings is not extinction, it is not annihilation. Destruction
gathers to it like a powerful magnet all that the Bible teaches
about that conscious state of existence in the age to come
in which the souls and bodies of all unregenerate, unconverted
people will suffer forever in the place called Gehenna or Hell. Like a magnet, this word, destruction,
gathers to it all of this frightening biblical language. Outer darkness. Weeping, wailing, gnashing of
teeth. The smoke of their torment ascends
up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night. I am tormented in these flames."
My friends, destruction gathers to it all of that biblical language
in all of its horrible reality. And the reality, I remind you,
is always greater than the language that seeks to express it. And
if the language is that frightening, what must the reality be? And
the opposite of that destruction is life. That is, the enjoyment
of the immediate presence of Almighty God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. In a state and a condition described
in the Bible in these words, there shall be no more crying,
There shall be no more pain. There shall be no more death,
for the former things are passed away. They shall follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goes. There is no need of the sun,
for the Lamb is the light of that city. And they shall serve
Him day and night, and His name shall be upon their foreheads. All of the language of the glories
of heaven are also drawn to the magnet of the word life and are
embodied in it. And as you sit here tonight,
every one of you will have as your ultimate destination destruction
or life. destruction with all of the horror
of the biblical descriptions of that condition and place of
eternal banishment in God's junkyard, or life with all of the indescribable
glories of knowing God in undimmed and immediate vision, experiencing
communion with God in unbroken fellowship, unfettered access
to the tree of life, unbounded energy to serve and follow the
Lamb whithersoever He goes. And I say to you on the basis
of the words of the Son of God, and hear me carefully, unless
you are so utterly dulled in your spiritual sensitivities,
so totally given over to a seared conscience and a hard heart that
you can think of these words, outer darkness, weeping, wailing,
gnashing of teeth, the smoke of the torment ascending forever
if you are so hardened and besottened and so wedded to this life that
those words mean nothing. And you can say, well, how shmell,
who cares? My friend, unless you've come
to such a frightening state, then surely there is something
in you that says, yes, at the end of my pilgrimage, I do not
want destruction. I want life. I don't enjoy pain. I don't enjoy darkness and suffering
and the company of the ugly and the grotesque and the evil. Yes, I want light. Then mark
it down, my friend. There's only one way to get to
life. You've got to get through the
narrow gate and on to the compressed way. And you have it on the Word
of Jesus. Do you see it? Do you see it? So it's not a matter of going
out saying, well, the preacher spoke convincingly, he spoke
earnestly, but I don't agree with him. My friend, hear me. It is Jesus, truth incarnate,
who says, enter the gate that leads to the way that issues
in life. Miss the gate, you'll miss the
way, you'll miss life. Destruction will be your portion. The necessity of that real conversion
which leads to eternal life is graphically set forth by our
Lord Jesus by this inseparable relationship between the gate,
the way, and the destination. But its force is not only seen
in that inseparable connection, it is seen by the fact that Jesus
speaks in the imperative. You see, as his listeners are
hanging upon his words, he does not merely invite them. As the
regal king of grace, he commands his hearers, enter the narrow
gate. You see, the gospel is not only
a gracious invitation, it is a regal and gracious command. The One who holds your destiny
in your hands speaks in all the plenitude of His authority in
His Word and says, Enter the narrow gate which leads to the
compressed way and which issues in life. Well, we see then in
the second place not only the necessity of that real conversion
which leads to eternal life, but we see the difficulties of
that real conversion which leads to eternal life. Jesus told his
hearers that though they must get through the gate and upon
the way, if they would enter into life, there are difficulties
attending everyone who would get through the gate. And he
says it in such simple words by describing the gate as a narrow
gate. See the language? Enter in by
the narrow gate. And what makes it even more difficult
is right next to the narrow gate there is a wide gate that one
seems to be able to enter so easily But He says those who
enter that wide gate and walk upon the broad way end up in
destruction. So if life is upon your heart,
you say, then life I must have. And if life can only be known
by getting through a gate that is called narrow, then preacher,
tell me from the Word of God, what are the difficulties connected
with real conversion? Well, according to our Lord in
the Sermon on the Mount, There are at least four basic difficulties
facing every man, woman, boy, or girl who would get through
the narrow gate. This will form the bulk of our
remaining exposition tonight, the difficulties attending that
real conversion which leads to eternal life. Our Lord likens
that gate to what, in our experience, probably the closest parallel,
is the turnstile that you find in the New York subway system
or that you find at the Brendan Byrne Arena or Shea Stadium. Those turnstiles by which people
pass into the subway system or by which they pass into the arena
or the stadium. And any of you who have traveled
with a lot of luggage know The difficulty you face when you
come up to one of those turnstiles, they've tried to design them
so that the average-sized person can get through, but that you
wouldn't have people going through three at a time. If they designed
them for Miss 5x5, you'd have five going through at a time.
So they have designed them in such a way that even sometimes
one person who's rather corpulent may have to turn sideways, suck
in and pull up his tummy, and slip through the turnstile. That's
the picture of a narrow, a compressed, a hedged-up gate. And our Lord,
in using that terminology, is focusing upon the difficulties. I have had the experience myself,
when traveling with a three-suiter suitcase, and maybe a garment
bag, and then a camera bag, and a briefcase, coming up to one
of those turnstiles, if I were using some of the systems, particularly
in Great Britain. And I can remember wondering,
what shall I do? Pass the suitcases over? Shove them under? But it
was evident I could not get through hanging on to my three-suiter,
my garment bag, my camera bag, and my briefcase. No way! Jose
couldn't do it! I had to unpack or I could not
get through that narrow turnstile which led me into the subway
system that would take me to Heathrow Airport to catch VA
flight 179 to come home to my wife. So there were the difficulties.
Well, that's the picture. Well, specifically, what are
the difficulties that every single sinner coming up to the gate
of true conversion, regardless of his background, regardless
of his training, his education, his cultural privileges or the
lack of them, regardless of the color of his skin, the shape
of his face, his sex, it matters not. What are the difficulties
every sinner faces? Here they are. Number one, the
difficulty of forsaking from the heart all self-sufficiency
and all self-righteousness as the ground of obtaining eternal
life. That's the first and fundamental
difficulty that every sinner faces at the gate of true conversion. For at the gate of true conversion,
God demands that every sinner, the respectable sinner, the unrespectable
sinner, The sinner reared in a Christian home, the sinner
reared in a den of iniquity and utter paganism. The sinner who
has lived a moral life, the sinner who has drunk of the depths of
immorality, it matters not, every sinner at that gate must be prepared
to do what? Forsake from the heart all self-sufficiency
and self-righteousness as the ground of obtaining eternal life. You see, sin has so twisted our
minds that with regard to the great question, how shall man
be right with God, all men by nature are either indifferent
to that question, or they have the wrong answer to it. You want
a picture of a man indifferent to it? Read Luke 12. There's
a man who's done well in business, and he says, I'm going to tear
down my barns, build bigger ones, I'm going to store up my goods
for many years, I'm going to eat, I'm going to drink, I'm
going to be merry, I'm going to enjoy a long and prosperous
and hedonistic retirement. No thought about being right
with God, no thought of what comes at the end, and that's
the way all men are by nature, utterly indifferent to being
right with God, or they're like the Pharisee, described in Luke
18, completely deceived as to the basis on which we can be
right with God. He comes into the temple, he
looks up into the face of God, and he starts bragging, preening
his feathers. He says, I thank thee, God, I'm not as other men.
Oh, yes, I must be accepted before you, because you see, I'm not
like other men. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
this. I'm not that. I'm not even like
that publican. And besides that, if that doesn't
quite make up grounds of righteousness acceptable, Lord, I've got some
good brownie points. I fast. I tithe. I do this. You see what he's doing? He's
reflecting, he's totally off the wall in his understanding
of the grounds on which God accepts sinners. And what our Lord has
been teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, by applying God's
law to the thoughts and to the intentions of the heart, to words
as well as deeds, to looks as well as actions, by emphasizing
purity of heart, hungering and thirsting after righteousness,
living under the eye of God. What has our Lord been showing
us? He has been showing us in the Sermon on the Mount that
there is not one of us. No matter how sheltered we've
been, no matter how much we've been blessed with Christian nurture
and training and restraints, who before the searchlight of
God's law does not stand guilty and condemned. We have fought
unclean thoughts, we have felt horrible inclinations and desires,
and we stand guilty and condemned, and we have no righteousness
of our own. And it is the great message of
the Gospel that God is prepared to give as free gift A righteousness
that is acceptable to Him. A righteousness that will pass
the scrutiny of His own eye in the day of judgment. The righteousness
that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The righteousness
that exceeds that of the holiest man or woman who ever lived.
It is nothing less than the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. based upon his perfect life and
his substitutionary death. And at the gate, God says to
every sinner, would you enter in and get on the way that leads
to life? Then at the gate, you must take
the posture of putting down every bag in which you think you've
got some things full of brownie points. Take off your shoulder
every garment bag in which you think you've got garments with
which you can dress yourself and appear with pride in my presence. You must put down your three-suiter,
throw off your garment bag, reach in your pocket and take out your
little manicure packet. Unpack anything and everything
that you think can be the ground of your acceptance. and throw
the whole weight of your naked soul upon the righteousness that
I have provided in my beloved Son. Now that's what makes conversion
difficult. That's what makes the gate narrow.
Because by nature, if we don't cling to the three-suiter, if
we don't cling to the big garment bag of our church membership
and our baptism and our religious heritage, surely we can at least
cling to the little purse. of our sweet attitude to the
old neighbor lady next door. Surely we can cling to at least
the little bag in which we put the brownie points for sorting
out the table, the Lord's table, and arranging the flowers in
church, and being sweet to our old auntie and her. My friends,
no. God says that that gate is narrow. so narrow that no one gets through
it until they've been stripped utterly naked. And they say,
God, we're down to bare skin. There's nothing that I hold and
nothing I wear. You see me in my nakedness if
you do not clothe me with a righteousness that will pass the scrutiny of
your eye in the last day, O God, I panic." That's why it's difficult. Because
you see, that cuts the nerve of pride. Wasn't that Paul's
problem? Read Philippians 3. He said people
are going around boasting that they've got a righteousness based
on their good breathing, based on their religious training,
based on their religious activity. He said, if they've got grounds
to boast, I do have grounds to boast. Hebrew of the Hebrews,
tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day, a Pharisee of
the Pharisees, touching zeal, persecuting the church. He said,
I had what I thought was a beautiful, well-adorned garment of righteousness,
made up of the fabric of my good breeding, my religious input,
my religious training, my privileges, my zeal, my activity. But he
said, you know what happened? One day God brought me to the
gate, and all that I thought was so beautiful, He said, you
know what I sought to be? He said, I sought to be nothing
but Scubala. Count them. He said, I count
all things lost and regard them but refuse, but done, that I
may win Christ and be found in Him. not having my own righteousness,
but the righteousness which is of God by faith." Now, my friend,
that's a narrow gate, isn't it? For some of you, you say, no,
I can't repudiate the fact that I kept myself pure until marriage. Surely that must count for something.
Yes, it counts for the privilege of going to your marriage bed
a virgin, but it doesn't count to get you to heaven. You may
as well have laid with a thousand women or a thousand men, as far
as your virginity being the ground of getting you into heaven. But
you say, surely all of that going to church and reading the Bible
doesn't that count for anything? Oh, yes. in terms of having a
store of biblical knowledge, having a background of certain
disciplines, it counts for much. But as far as counting to be
the grounds of a righteousness, my friend, it counts no more
than if you didn't know one word of the Bible. How can I state
it more plainly? It's a narrow, narrow door. All sufficiency stripped away. all self-righteousness repudiated. And if you're determined, hear
me now, if you're determined, and I wish I could pluck one
strand out of my handkerchief, if I could, just one strand out
of the warping wolf of this handkerchief, if you're determined to hold
to one thread at the door and say, maybe the Lord's not looking,
I'll roll it up in a ball and stick it in my pocket, just in
case His righteousness won't quite do it, I'll have a A little
string to pull out and say, here, Lord, my friend, you'll be damned
for your one strand. That's why it's a narrow gate,
because everybody gets through it. Glory is in one thing alone. Let him that glorieth glory in
the Lord. Now, the Bible says, but it's
not only difficult, Because we must forsake from the heart all
self-sufficiency and all self-righteousness, the ground of our acceptance
with God. But in the second place, it's
difficult because there's the difficulty of forsaking from
the heart self-will as the governing principle by which we're going
to live. There at the gate, We must forsake from the heart self-will
as the governing principle by which we're going to live. You
see, when man came from the hand of his Creator, he came forth
a creature whose whole life centered in the will of God. If I may
put it into this kind of picturesque language, when Adam came from
the hand of God, God built him with a throne room in his heart.
And in Adam's heart, upon that throne, God placed himself And
when Adam looked in at the throne room and saw God on the throne,
he said, God, that's good. That's where you belong. And
as long as you're there, I'll be perfectly happy. That's the
way God made him. But you know what happened? The
devil came, tempted Eve. And then with our father Adam,
it was blatant, high-handed treason. He said, no, I can attain some
good at the expense of pushing God off the throne. God said,
all the trees you may eat, but of that tree you may not eat.
In the day you eat, you'll die. He said, well, we've been promised
a certain dimension of knowledge. That is some good at the expense
of pushing God off. And what Adam pushed God off
in the pursuit of some good. He plunged himself in all humanity
into ruin and into hell itself. And now God says, look, Every
one of us is conceived and born, still having a throne room, still
having a throne, but there's a usurper king on that throne,
and that king is one big perpendicular and two little horizontals. I,
me, mine, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned every
one of us to what? His own way. 2 Corinthians 5, 15, that we
should no longer live unto self by nature. The governing principle
of our lives, every one of us, is living to please ourselves. Now sometimes that leads into
a life of open and ugly profligacy and rebellion and anarchy and
lawlessness. Sometimes it leads to a very
respectable, admirable, desirable life as far as the world is concerned. But in God's eyes, as long as
he is not upon the throne made for himself, it's a life of treason. The rightful king has been forced
from his throne. And what's the Sermon on the
Mount all about? Well, you go back and read it in circle. Every
time you read these words, I say unto you, I say unto you, I say
unto you, I say unto you, I say unto you, what's Jesus saying?
He says, in my kingdom, my word cuts mustard. In my kingdom,
what I say goes. In my kingdom, what I say is
the final authority and the subjects of my kingdom live by my word. That's why he said further on
in this very seventh chapter, not everyone who says to me,
Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that is doing
the will of my Father, which is in heaven. You know why conversion,
true conversion, is so difficult? Because God says, look, I don't
want you to just chuck overboard some of the manifestations of
self-will. I'm telling you to go to the
root of it and get off the throne. and welcome the King of Glory
to his rightful throne. That's why it's difficult, because
there must be a forsaking from the heart of self-will as the
governing principle of life. You remember Isaiah's wonderful
invitation in chapter 55? It begins with the free offer
of the gospel. Oh, everyone who's thirst come
to the waters. He that hath no money come buy
wine and milk, come buy wine and milk without money and without
price. But then he goes on to say, seek
the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Listen now. Let the wicked forsake what? His way. Isaiah 53, 6 says, we
have turned everyone to his own way. God says, let the wicked
forsake his way. That is the whole pattern of
life rooted and grounded in the principle of living for yourself. You've got to say no to it. What is the repeated first requirement
of discipleship from the lips of Jesus? If any man will come
after me, let him say no to booze and broads and... No, what does
he say? Let him say no to himself. That's what he said, didn't he?
If any man would come after me, let him say no to himself! That's why the gates narrow.
Oh yes, multitudes would love to snatch at the righteousness
offered in the person and work of Christ if only they can be
given the leave to still go on running their own lives. And
so this damnable doctrine of you can have Christ as Savior
but not as Lord has inundated the Church. And the equally damnable
doctrine that you can be saved but not surrendered has inundated
the Church. An equally damnable doctrine,
you can be saved and on your way to heaven, but just a carnal
Christian living for self and for flesh, no friends, that's
to turn the narrow gate into a wide gate. That's to say you
can go right on in, doing your own thing, just so long as you
tip your hat to Jesus on the cross, you're all fixed up. My
friend, you're fixed up to go to hell doubly damned. That's
all you're fixed up for. It's a narrow gate. And it's
narrow because you've got to repudiate all self-righteousness
as the ground of your acceptance with God. You've got to repudiate
self-will as the governing principle of your life. And it's difficult
because you've got to repudiate something else, too. You have
got to forsake from the heart, and hear me carefully, forsake
from the heart all sin as the willful practice of your life. Now, I did not say you must break
every chain of sin that binds you when you come to the gate.
It's the job of the liberator to break the chains, not you.
I did not say that you must be sinlessly perfect to get through
the gate. What I said was this. It's a
narrow gate because when you come to it, you must forsake
from the heart all sin as the deliberate practice of your life.
You must be prepared to have the Lord Jesus break every chain,
tear every idol from your heart, strip away from you anything
that displeases Him. Remember in this sermon what
He said? He said, if you've got an eye that offends you, someone
says, I can't help but lust. I look at a woman, I lust. Jesus
said, you look and you lust, that's committing adultery. If
you look with an intention to lust, Not if you simply look
and appreciate beauty, but you look with a view to lust, with
desiring that person as a sexual partner. He says that's adultery. And so he anticipates someone
saying, but Lord, I can't help it. I got an eye. And every time,
he says, if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it
from thee. It is better to enter into what?
Life. Life. Life. Having one eye than
having two eyes to go into hell. Someone says, well, there's a
certain sin. I just can't help it. My hand just gravitates to
it. I just can't help it. Jesus said,
if thy hand offend thee, whack it, hack it off, and cast it
from you. It's better to enter into life
having one hand than two hands to go into hell. What's he saying?
He says, in my kingdom, all my people sign no peace treaties
with any sin. Sin is much a part of them, is
right hand and right eye. You've got to be prepared to
deal with it at any cost. That's why it's a narrow gate. That's why few find it, not because
the gate is obscure and hidden off. Men love their sins. The scripture says they love
darkness. They drink iniquity like water. My friend, listen,
sitting here tonight, Hear me. Hear me. What sin? What sin are
you clinging to? Willfully, deliberately, knowingly,
known only to you and God, perhaps. The sin you spare will damn you. The sin you spare will damn you. That's why the gate's narrow.
That's why few find it. Because you've got multitudes
that are willing to deal with sin. that are like the junk that
my wife and I collected over 25 years of rearing kids that
ended up in our basement. And when the last bird flew out
of the nest in December, we agreed it was time now to reassess all
those so-called valuable things we stored in the basement. So
we agreed for several Mondays for three hours, giving each
other complete right of non-negotiable chucking powers. Anything she
agreed to chuck, I could not veto her chuck. Anything I agreed
to chuck, she could not veto my chucking. So we had the boxes
and the bags and we started chucking away. And there, that little
plastic pot thing that cost us a dollar and a half. And back
when we were rubbing pennies, we said, boy, we may need that
a few more months. Better save that. And all kinds of stuff. We got in a good chucking mood
and we had more fun chucking away junk. It was no problem. Why? Because stuff was utterly
invaluable to us. There was no attachment of affection. There was no attachment of a
utilitarian nature. It was just junk cluttering up
the basement. And that's the way a lot of sinners
are. They come up to the narrow gate and say, oh yeah, I'll get
rid of that thing. That's no big deal for me. Get
rid of that. That's no big deal, not that. Ah, but what about
the right hand? That envious spirit that you've
nursed from a little girl, a little boy. that lying tongue that's
been your companion from the time you could speak, that terrible
biting tongue that with sarcasm slashes and cuts and wounds and
scars, that deep-seated spirit of unforgiveness that holds grudges
and nurses grudges The evil eye that puts the worst connotation
upon all of the deeds of others. The pride that swells within
and makes you feel you're a little god or goddess. Behind the closed
door of your bedroom you worship your face and your body before
the mirror as though you were bowing down to a god of wood
or stone. What about that right hand, Sid?
Without the right eyes. Listen to Jesus. It must be cut
off and cast away. It must be plucked out and cast
away. Or you'll never get through the
narrow gate. And if you stand there saying, Lord, there's a
right hand sin. I know it's got to go. But hard
as I try, I can't work it off. Lord, assist me. You'll get through. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Hallelujah.
He gives the strength to whack off the right hands and gouge
out the right eyes, but not to those who say, Oh no, Lord, I
want in, I want in, but not this, not that, not this. You see why He said few find
it? If real conversion involves that,
an awful lot of people talking about going to heaven ain't getting
there. And then fourth and finally,
it's a narrow gate for this very fundamental reason. There is
the difficulty of forsaking from the heart all willful attachment
to the world as our chosen companion in life. There is the difficulty
of forsaking from the heart all willful attachment to the world
as our chosen companion in life. Now, what do I mean by the world?
I mean by the world what Jesus meant in this sermon. You remember
He said this about His disciples, you are the light of the world? It is that system of men and
things that is in the darkness of satanic bondage. where men
in their darkness grope about for their own value systems,
for their own standards and goals, and their own judgments of what
is virtuous and what is vicious, what is right, what is wrong.
The world is that system held in the prince of darkness and
is plunged in darkness. Then Jesus said this, you are
the salt of the earth. He there likens the earth, not
the physical ground, but the world, its inhabitants, devoid
of the grace of God, as in a state of putrefaction and decay. And salt is that agent which
checks the putrefaction. And what he's saying throughout
the entire Sermon on the Mount is this. My people are the light
of that world system. They're not a part of it. They
have forsaken the world as their chosen companion in life, and
they have chosen to cast their lot in with My people who are
not of this world. They don't think by this world's
standards. They don't dance to the tune
of the world's band. They don't march to the beat
of the world's drum. They live by the standards of
their Lord. They seek first His kingdom.
They're concerned about a pure heart more than a pretty face.
They're concerned about meekness more than wealth. They're concerned
about hungering and thirsting after righteousness more than
hungering and thirsting after fame and prestige and importance
and acceptance. They are poor in spirit. They
are not like the world that seeks to feed its own on pride and
self-importance and pushiness. My friend, listen, this world
system is no friend of Christ and it's no friend of anybody
that comes through the door. And you've got to be prepared
at that gate to undergo a divorce because you and I were born married
to the world. There's the gate. If necessary,
you've got to lick your finger to get your ring off and say
that ring. which when I was born was upon
my finger, marrying me to this world, this system of darkness,
of anti-God, anti-Christ goals and standards and all the rest. I say to this world, I divorce
you in the name of the God of heaven. The God who so loved
a sinner like me is to send his son to die. And it's the world
that rejected Him. It was I, a part of the world,
that crucified Him. World, I divorce you! And in
the name of God, you throw your ring into the deepest sea. That's why it's a narrow gate.
People want a brand of Christianity that lets them go to bed with
the world only once a month. wants to go out in some forbidden
place and court the world, and stroke the world, and fondle
the world, and carry on illicit liaisons and secret trysts with
the world. My Bible says all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life is not of the Father, And the world passeth away in
the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God, here we
are again, abides forever, life. And you can't do the will of
God and be a friend of the world, for the Scripture says, you adulterers
and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be
a friend of the world is the enemy of God. My friend, you
must make your choice. Be the world's enemy and Christ's
friend. Or be the world's friend and
Christ's enemy and be prepared to have him deal with you as
his enemy in the day of judgment. That's why true conversion is
a difficult thing because of those four non-negotiable difficulties. We've seen the necessity of true
conversion that leads to life. He's connected the gate, the
way and life, the difficulty, the four major difficulties.
And notice what he says, the rarity of it. Few there be that
find it. Few there be that find it. Does
that mean heaven's going to only have someone, one every 25 blocks? No. My Bible says that Jesus
died to redeem a multitude whom no man can number, out of every
kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation. and he will make them
kings and priests unto God and they shall worship him day and
night and serve him forever in his temple. But what our Lord
is saying is in any given generation and in the context, even in the
most religious crowd, few, relatively speaking, find the narrow gate. Where was Jesus speaking? In
the one place in the whole existing world where the light of special
revelation existed. It was only in Palestine that
the Scriptures had been given. And though they had been disseminated
through the dispersion there at the time of our Lord to synagogues
in various parts of the Roman Empire, in a very real sense,
Jerusalem was the seat of saving light. There was the temple,
there were the sacrifices appointed of God, and with all of that
privilege, Jesus says, few find the narrow gate. And my friends,
in a place like this, where the Word is preached freely, honestly,
earnestly, passionately, an awful lot of people like good preaching,
few there be that find it. Are you one of those few? If you come through the narrow
gate, can you say sitting here tonight, by the grace of God,
I gladly confess, I trust no righteousness of my own. I rest
solely upon the righteousness that is in Jesus Christ the Savior. Can you say, with all my struggles,
with remaining sin and all of my remaining rebellion, I can
say honestly, I've settled this issue. I want the gracious Redeemer
to sit as unrivaled sovereign on the throne of my heart, and
I don't want Him to have to share that sovereignty with any of
us. And can you say, though I must confess my sins a hundred times
a day, my pride, my lust, my temper, my irritability, my short-sightedness,
my insensitivity, and a host of other sins, God knows that
I've struck no peace treaty with any sin, and I'm waging war against
all sin, and I long for heaven. Next to the joy of seeing my
Savior, my greatest impetus for wanting to go to heaven is, I'll
be done with sin. You've got a notion of heaven
that you're going to go around with a penknife, cutting off
chunks of gold and sticking them in your pocket, my friend. That's
not the heaven that awaits God's people. And though you say the
world often bewitches me, shows its thigh to me, and winks its
eye and seduces me, And I may even step aside and embrace it
for a time. God knows. God knows that even
in the midst of that embrace of the world, I know I'm out
of my element because I've put the world behind me. And I've
repudiated it as my willful, chosen companion. Christ and
His people are my companions. Dear people, I'm not talking
about perfection. I'm talking about the root of
evangelical grace And you know why, if you look
at the passage, and I know I've kept too long, but my friend
helds a long time. And if by preaching my heart
out, and I'm not doing this as an ego trip, I've poured my soul
out fifteen times this week in preaching, and God knows if I
could have had someone else preach here tonight, I would have let
them. But I said, Lord, if I've got to die in no place, I'd rather
die than warning fellow sinners to flee from the wrath to come
and get through the gate. My friend, listen to me. What
makes it so difficult is Jesus said there's always an easy alternative
standing right next to the narrow gate. You see it in the text?
Enter in at the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is
the way. You see the connection? He said
go take the easy alternative. The moment you set your face
and your eyes and the gaze of your soul upon true conversion,
the devil will, by one means or another, set before you a
nice big wide gate. You can come up to it with a
free suitor, a two suitor, a garment bag, your camera bag, your suitcase. You can come up to it with a
matte truck. Throw all your baggage in the bin and sit in your truck
and go riding straight through. You don't need to throw out anything.
That's the big, wide gate of cheap religion. Shallow decisionism. Empty formalism. Jesus said it's
always there, beckoning. And once you get on the wide
way, there's nothing difficult about it. You see, the narrow
gate is just the gate extended into a way of life. That's why
it's a compressed way. You say, boy, the gate's narrow.
Maybe it'll widen up a little bit and get on the way. Uh-uh.
Jesus said the way is just as narrow as the gate. For the gate
simply sets the boundaries for the way. And so you've got to
go through life until you enter life. You've got to go through
this pilgrimage until you enter life. Doing what? Continually
repudiating your own righteousness and looking only to Christ. Continually
repudiating self-will and looking only to Christ's will. Continually
say no to sin and yes to righteousness. Say no to the world and yes to
Him and to His people. All along the way, but there's
the beckoning. of the big white gate, no repentance,
no submission to Christ as Lord, no mortification demanded, no
humbling, just a nice slick decision. Raise your hand, pray a prayer.
You're all fixed up. And then you just ride your big
Mack truck full of all your baggage, till one day it'll drop off the
edge and you'll end up in hell. Because that way leads to destruction.
Jesus said it, I didn't. Don't you make the gate of the
way any narrower than the Son of God did. Because in the day
of judgment, he's going to settle things for eternity. Oh, my friend,
enter the gate. Narrow as it is, enter the gate. Difficult as it is, enter the
gate. You remember what Bunyan did
with his Christian? He understood this. When he left
the city of destruction, he knew there'd be a hundred voices trying
to call him back. So Bunyan describes him as doing
this. He stuck his fingers in his ears and he cried, Life! Life! Eternal Life! And he wasn't going to allow
any voice to deter him from seeking life, getting through the wicked
gate and onto the narrow way. Oh, that you may cry tonight,
Life! life, eternal life. I must have it, or I'll die in
the pursuit of it. It is there in Christ. You heard
it this morning. Look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is no other. You dear men preparing for the
ministry, God help you to preach a free unfettered offer of mercy,
but to preach an honest biblical doctrine of conversion. that
is always plumbed by the Word of Jesus. It's a narrow gate. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, as we have
sought to open our minds and our hearts to the words of our
Savior, we confess that they are not words that we would ever
have written. or ever have spoken, we would
have conceived a way so suitable to our carnal lusts and to the
pride of our hearts. But we thank you for our Lord
Jesus who spoke truth to us, and not only spoke truth, but
is the truth, and who offers himself to us as our righteousness,
as the one who can break the chains of our sins, divorce our
hearts from the world, and bind us to himself as his loving bond
slaves. Oh God, would you not this night
bring people through the gate? May your servant not have preached
in vain. May your people not have sat
here and prayed in vain. But oh God, bring people through
the gate. Put them on the way. Bring them
to life. Lord, let none who has heard
the word Depart into outer darkness. Show mercy. Magnify Your grace
in the salvation of many. We plead for the honor of Your
Son that He may receive the full reward of His suffering in the
salvation of many who have heard the Word tonight. We ask that
as we leave this place The serious and sober things that we have
heard may not be dissipated through foolish and frivolous conversation,
but may our words to one another be used of you further to drive
your word into our needy hearts. Hear us and answer us, we plead. Amen.

True Conversion, Rare and Difficult

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about true conversion?

How do we know conversion is difficult?

Why is true conversion important for Christians?

How do we enter the narrow gate?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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True Conversion, Rare and Difficult

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about true conversion?

How do we know conversion is difficult?

Why is true conversion important for Christians?

How do we enter the narrow gate?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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