The following 14-minute sermon excerpt is from a 72 minute sermon by Voddie Baucham wherein he was talking about the Sermon on the Mount, specifically, Matthew 7: 13 and 14, the narrow and wide gates.
The sermon is also posted below and is very worthy of your attention as he provided an overview of texts in the Sermon on the Mount before preaching focusing on his texts. That overview gives a fuller picture of the true kingdom citizen.
That is, the beatitudes describe that person, the 6 antitheses of chapter 6 describe the kingdom citizen’s lifestyle, and then his sermon text deals with how the true kingdom citizen enters into that life and walks it.
I cut off the tail end of his sermon because it describes repentance and a biblical view of sin. I have created posts from other books of the Bible and other preachers that emphasize these things, but considering the corrupt and diluted state of the contemporary church, I believe that one can’t hear these things enough, as they must be known, understood, believed and practiced – I’m not quite there myself.
Sermon HIGHLIGHT points, which cannot convey Baucham’s message, but let readers know content he covered [emboldening and bracketed statements are mine]:
- Pastor Baucham opened with a 3-minute statement about the dangers of believing you have been saved via the sinner’s prayer, signing a card…
- Such professors of Christianity never come to true repentance and faith
- He quoted some words of John Calvin on Matthew 7:13, 14
- For those who do not know that scripture: Mat 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. [ESV]
- It is so hard to be a narrow-road Christian because we all so want to enjoy the pleasures and ease of walking the broad road
- However, eternal life is only found via the narrow gate and the hard way, per Jesus’ words above
- The hard way is marked by suffering, persecution and few friends [Jesus stated several times in the gospel accounts, that His followers need to deny themselves, pick up their crosses and follow Him]
- Jesus’ description above echoes the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 30 [emboldened words in verse 19 below, the others provide some context]:
- Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
- Some comments from the late pastor James M. Boyce: …do not assume you have entered the narrow gate and are on the hard way unless you are pursuing it in obedience to Christ
- Test yourself to see if you are in the faith: are you striving to be obedient? Do you have few companions in the way with you? Are you being persecuted?
- [In our time, when Christians are seen as racists, standing for Christ and His word will draw persecution to you; Jesus requires you to testify of Him if you would have Him speak in your behalf]
- The following words picture biblical repentance:
- You understand that you are a sinner, wretched in nature and deed; that you deserve the punishment which a holy and righteous God must give sinners, His wrath, eternally
- Repentance is self-abhorrence; being so sick of yourself that you cannot stand yourself, such that you want to get away from yourself because you recognize that everything in you is filthy and wretched; that you could never deserve to be in the presence of a holy God
- Repentance is turning from that and crying out to the only one who can make you any different
- [The above statement is in line with Jonathan Edwards ‘struggle of faith,’ the point in which he described the sinner realizing that he cannot save himself – that assumes a long struggle to do that very thing, along with continued failure to accomplish it, and self-observation, self-examination…. See it stated below videos]
- Faith in what?
- In the God-Man who was born of a virgin; who died on a cross to atone for the sins of His people; who rose again; who is coming again to judge the living and the dead [by the way, all of those things are described in the gospel of Matthew: it begins with His incarnation and ends with His ascension and the other is described in the process; 1 Corinthians 15 also provides a summary of those events necessary for our salvation]
- Faith is to be in Him alone, in His completed work
- NOT, Christ and _________.
- When you grasp repentance and faith in the above manner, then you understand the narrow gate and the hard way
- He spent a couple of minutes describing the kinds of errors in thinking that keep one from discovering the narrow gate and hard way; errors of those who came to “faith” via the sinner’s prayer, e.g.
- Closing prayer at the 11:30 minute mark
The entire 72-minute sermon is below:
Below are Jonathan Edwards’ ‘struggle of faith’ and link to the post from which is came, on the sinner’s prayer:
Edwards established a 5 stage process which he termed, the struggle of faith: 1) horror of being eternally lost; 2), the sinner’s attempt to stop sinning via his will power [it cannot be done independently of God’s Spirit]; 3), realization that only God can save him from sin [indicates that one sees his powerlessness to save himself]; 4), conviction, the sinner beginning to see that God’s judgment is just [because he sees his continued sinning and is comprehending his wretchedness]; 5), awakening to God with genuine religious affections [given by God’s Spirit to those within whom He has worked salvation].
The following prominent Christians spent many years between stages 1 and 5 of Edwards standard of assessment for genuine conversion:
John Calvin, 12 years; Wesley, 23 years; Whitefield, 10 years; Fox, 12 years; Edwards, 5 years; Brainerd, 9 years; Newton, 6 years; Spurgeon, 4 years….
Which stage or stages are you presently walking in?
If the sinner’s prayer has given you counterfeit assurance and you have no fear of hell but only contemplate God’s love [like so many contemporary Christians], then you have not reached stage one of Edwards 5-stage struggle of coming to saving faith.